eaten more largely than became the moderation of Students immediately commanded one of his Free-Men to take his own Son and Scourge him in our sight because sayd the Philosopher my young Gentleman cou'd not eat his Dinner without Poynant sauce or Vinegar and at the same time he cast his eye on all of us So that every Criminal was given to understand that he had a share in the reprehension and that the punishment was as well deserv'd by all the rest had the Phylosopher not known that it exceeded his Commission to inflict it Plutarch therefore having the assistance of such a Master in few years advanc'd to admiration in knowledge And that without first Travelling into Forreign parts or acquiring any Forreign tongue though the Roman Language at that time was not only vulgar in Rome it self but generally through the extent of that vast Empire and in Greece which was a Member of it as our Author has remark'd towards the end of his Platonick questions For like a true Philosopher who minded things not words he strove not even to cultivate his Mother Tongue with any great exactness And himself confesses in the beginning of Demosthenes his life that during his abode in Italy and at Rome he had neither the leisure to study nor so much as to exercise the Roman language I suppose he means to write in it rather than to speak it as well by reason of the affairs he manag'd as that he might acquit himself to those who were desirous to be instructed by him in Philosophy In so much that till the declination of his age he began not to be conversant in Latin books in reading of which it happened somewhat oddly to him that he learnt not the knowledge of things by words but by the understanding and use he had of things attain'd to the knowledge of words which signified them Just as Adam setting aside divine illumination call'd the Creatures by their proper Names by first understanding of their natures But for the delicacies of the Tongue the turns of the Expression the figures and connexions of words in which consist the beauty of that language he plainly tells us that tho he much admir'd them yet they requir'd too great labour for a Man in Age and plung'd in business to attain perfectly Which Compleplement I shou'd be willing to believe from a Philosopher if I did not consider that Dion Cassius nay even Herodian and Appian after him as well as Polybius before him by writing the Roman History in the Greek language had shewn as manifest a contempt of Latin in respect of the other as French Men now do of English which they disdain to speak while they live among us But with great advantage to their trivial conceptions drawing the discourse into their own language have learnt to despise our better thoughts which must come deform'd and lame in conversation to them as being transmitted in a Tongue of which we are not Masters This is to arrogate a superiority in nature over us as undoubtedly the Grecians did over their Conquerours by establishing their language for a Standard it being become so much a mode to speak and write Greek in Tully's time that with some indignation I have read his Epistles to Atticus in which he desires to have his own consulship written by his friend in the Grecian language which he afterwards perform'd himself a vain attempt in my opinion for any Man to endeavour to excel in a Tongue which he was not born to speak This tho it be digression yet deserves to be consider'd at more leisure for the honour of of our Wit and Writings which are of a more solid make than that of our Neighbours is concern'd in it But to return to Plutarch as it was his good fortune to be moulded first by Masters the most excellent in their kind so it was his own vertue to suck in with an incredible desire and earnest application of mind their wise instructions and it was also his prudence so to manage his health by moderation of diet and bodily exercise as to preserve his parts without decay to a great old age to be lively and vigorous to the last and to preserve himself to his own enjoyments and to the profit of Mankind Which was not difficult for him to perform having receiv'd from nature a constitution capable of labour and from the Domestick example of his Parents a sparing sobriety of diet a temperance in other pleasures and above all an Habitude of commanding his passions in order to his health Thus principled and grounded he consider'd with himself that a larger Communication with learned Men was necessary for his accomplishment and therefore having a Soul insatiable of knowledge and being ambitious to excell in all kinds of Science he took up a resolution to Travel Egypt was at that time as formerly it had been famous for learning and probably the Mysteriousness of their Doctrine might tempt him as it had done Pythagoras and others to converse with the Priest-hood of that Country which appears to have been particularly his business by the Treatise of Isis and Osyris which he has left us In which he shews himself not meanly vers'd in the ancient Theology and Philosophy of those wise Men. From Egypt returning into Greece he visited in his way all the Academies or Schools of the several Philosophers and gather'd from them many of those observations with which he has enrich'd Posterity Besides this he applyed himself with extream diligence to collect not only all books which were excellent in their kind and already publish'd but also all sayings and discourses of wise Men which he had heard in conversation or which he had receiv'd from others by Tradition As likewise the Records and publick Instruments preserv'd in Cities which he had visited in his Travels and which he afterwards scatter'd through his works To which purpose he took a particular Journy to Sparta to search the Archives of that famous Commonwealth to understand throughly the model of their ancient Government their Legislators their Kings and their Ephori digesting all their memorable deeds and sayings with so much care that he has not omitted those even of their Women or their private Souldiers together with their Customes their Decrees their Ceremonies and the manner of their publick and private living both in peace and war The same methods he also took in divers other Commonwealths as his Lives and his Greek and Roman Questions sufficiently testifie Without these helps it had been impossible for him to leave in writing so many particular observations of Men and manners and as impossible to have gatherd them without conversation and commerce with the learned Antiquaries of his time To these he added a curious Collection of Ancient Statues Medals Inscriptions and Paintings as also of proverbial sayings Epigrams Epitaphs Apothegmes and other Ornaments of History that he might leave nothing unswept behind him And as he was continually in Company with
absurd and contradictious to one another I pretend not this passage to be Translated word for word but 't is the sence of the whole tho the order of the Sentence be inverted The other is more plain 'T is in his Comment on the Word EI or those two Letters inscrib'd on the Gates of the Temple at Delphos Where having given the several opinions concerning it as first that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fignifies if because all the questions which were made to Apollo began with If as suppose they ask'd if the Grecians should overcome the Persians if such a Marriage shou'd come to to pass c. And afterwards that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might signifie thou art as the second person of the present tense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating thereby the being or perpetuity of being belonging to Apollo as a God in the same sense that God express'd himself to Moses I am hath sent thee Plutarch subjoyns as inclining to this latter opinion these following words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes he signifies thou art one for there are not many Deities but only one Continues I mean not one in the aggregate sense as we say one Army or one Body of Men constituted of many individuals but that which is must of necessity be one and to be implies to be One One is that which is a simple being uncompounded or free from mixture Therefore to be One in this sense is only consistent with a Nature pure in it self and not capable of alteration or decay That he was no Christian is manifest Yet he is no where found to have spoken with contumely of our Religion like the other Writers of his Age and those who succeeded him Theodoret says of him that he had heard of our holy Gospel and inserted many of our Sacred Mysteries in his Works which we may easily believe because the Christian Churches were then spread in Greece and Pliny the younger was at the same time conversant amongst them in Asia tho that part of our Authors Workes is not now extant from whence Theodoret might gather those passages But we need not wonder that a Philosopher was not easie to embrace the divine Mysteries of our Faith A modern God as our Saviour was to him was of hard digestion to a Man who probably despis'd the vanities and fabulous Relations of all the old Besides a Crucfy'd Saviour of Mankind a Doctrine attested by illiterate Disciples the Author of it a Jew whose Nation at that time was despicable and his Doctrine but an innovation among that despis'd people to which the Learned of his own Country gave no credit and which the Magistrates of his Nation punish'd with an ignominious death the Scene of his Miracles acted in an obscure Corner of the world his being from Eternity yet born in time his Resurrection and Ascension these and many more particulars might easily choke the Faith of a Philosopher who believ'd no more than what he cou'd deduce from the principles of Nature and that too with a doubtful Academical assent or rather an inclination to assent to probability which he judg'd was wanting in this new Religion These circumstances consider'd tho they plead not an absolute invincible ignorance in his behalf yet they amount at least to a degree of it for either he thought them not worth weighing or rejected them when weigh'd and in both cases he must of necessity be ignorant because he cou'd not know without Revelation and the Revelation was not to him But leaving the Soul of Plutarch with our Charitable wishes to his Maker we can only trace the rest of his opinions in Religion from his Philosophy Which we have said in the General to be Platonick tho it cannot also be denyed that there was a tincture in it of the Electick Sect which was begun by Potamon under the Empire of Augustus and which selected from all the other Sects what seem'd most probable in their opinions not adhering singularly to any of them nor rejecting every thing I will only touch his belief of Spirits In his two Treatises of Oracles the one concerning the reason of their Cessation the other enquiring why they were not given in verse as in former times he seems to assert the Pythagorean Doctrine of Transmigration of Souls We have formerly shewn that he own'd the the Unity of a Godhead whom according to his Attributes he calls by several names as Jupiter from his Almighty Power Apollo from his Wisdom and so of the rest but under him he places those beings whom he styles Genii or Daemons of a middle nature betwixt Divine and Human for he thinks it absur'd that there shou'd be no mean betwixt the two extreams of an Immortal and a Mortal Being That there cannot be in nature so vast a flaw without some intermedial kind of life partaking of them both as therefore we find the intercourse betwixt the Soul and body to be made by the Animal Spirits so betwixt Divinity and humanity there is this species of Daemons Who having first been Men and following the strict Rules of vertue had purg'd off the grossness and faeculency of their earthly being are exalted into these Genii and are from thence either rais'd higher into an Aetherial life if they still continue vertuous or tumbled down again into Mortal Bodies and sinking into flesh after they have lost that purity which constituted their glorious being And this sort of Genii are those who as our Author imagines presided over Oracles Spirits which have so much of their terrestrial principles remaining in them as to be subject to passions and inclinations usually beneficent sometimes Malevolent to Mankind according as they refine themselves or gather dross and are declining into Mortal Bodies The Cessation or rather the decrease of Oracles for some of them were still remaing in Plutarchs time he Attributes either to the death of those Daemons as appears by the story of the Egyptian Thamus who was Commanded to declare that the great God Pan was dead or to their forsaking of those places where they formerly gave out their Oracles from whence they were driven by stronger Genii into banishment for a certain Revolution of Ages Of this last nature was the War of the Gyants against the Gods the dispossession of Saturn by Jupiter the banishment of Apollo from Heaven the fall of Vulcan and many others all which according to our Authours were the battles of these Genii or Daemons amongst themselves But supposing as Plutarch evidently does that these Spirits administer'd under the Supream Being the affairs of Men taking care of the vertuous punishing the bad and sometimes communicating with the best as particularly the Genius of Socrates always warn'd him of approaching dangers and taught him to avoyd them I cannot but wonder that every one who has hitherto written Plutarchs Life and particularly Rualdus the most knowing of them all should so confidently affirm that these Oracles were given by bad Spirits according
compar'd him not with Hannibal but with Epaminondas As appears by the Catalogue or Nomenclature of Plutarchs Lifes drawn up by his Son Lamprias and yet extant But to make this out more clearly we find the Florentine in his Life of Hannibal thus relating the famous Conference betwixt Scipio and him Scipio at that time being sent Ambassadour from the Romans to King Antiochus with Publius Villius It happen'd then that these two great Captains met together at Ephesus and amongst other discourse it was demanded of Hannibal by Scipio whom he thought to have been the greatest Captain To whom he thus answer'd In the first place Alexander of Macedon in the second Pyrrhus of Epyrus and in the third himself To which Scipio smileing thus rereply'd And what wou'd you have thought had it been your fortune to have vanquish'd me to whom Hannibal I should then have adjudg'd the first place to my self Which answer was not a little pleasing to Scipio because by it he found himself not disesteem'd nor put into comparison with the rest but by the delicacy and gallantry of a well turn'd compliment set like a Man divine above them all Now this relation is a meer compendium of the same conference from Livy But if we can conceive Plutarch to have written the Life of Hannibal t is hard to believe that he should tell the same story after so different or rather so contrary a manner in another place For in the life of Pyrrhus he thus writes Hannibal adjudg'd the praeeminence to Pyrrhus above all Captains in conduct and Military skill Next to Pyrrhus he plac'd Scipio and after Scipio himself as we have declar'd in the Life of Scipio T is not that I wou'd excuse Plutarch as if he never related the same thing diversely for 't is evident that through want of advertency he has been often guilty of that errour of which the Reader will find too frequent Examples in these Lives but in this place he cannot be charg'd with want of memory or care because what he says here is relating to what he had said formerly So that he may mistake the story as I believe he has done that other of Livy being much more probable but we must allow him to remember what he had before written From hence I might take occasion to note some other lapses of our Author which yet amount not to falsification of truth much less to partiality or envy both which are manifest in his Country-man Dion Cassius who writ not long after him but are only the frailties of humane nature mistakes not intentional but accidental He was not altogether so well vers'd either in the Roman language or in their coyns or in the value of them in some Customes Rites and Ceremonies he took passages on trust from others relating both to them and the Barbarians which the Reader may particularly find recited in the Animadversions of the often prais'd Rualdus on our Author I will name but one to avoyd tediousness because I particularly observ'd it when I read Plutarch in the Library of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge to which foundation I gratefully acknowledge a great part of my Education 't is that Plutarch in the life of Cicero speaking of Verres who was accus'd by him and repeating a miserable jeast of Tullys says that Verres in the Roman language signifies a barrow Pig that is one which has been guelded But we have a better account of the signification from Varro whom we have more reason to believe that the Male of that kind before he is cut is called Verres after cutting Majalis which is perhaps a diminitive of Mas tho generally the reason of the Etymology is given from its being a Sacrifice to the Goddess Maja Yet any Man who will candidly weigh this and the like errours may excuse Plutarch as he wou'd a stranger mistaking the propriety of an English word And besides the humanity of this excuse 't is impossible in nature that a Man of so various learning and so covetous of ingrossing all should perfectly digest such an infinity of notions in many Sciences since to be excellent in one is so great a labour It may now be expected that having written the Life of an Historian I should take occasion to write somewhat concerning History it self But I think to commend it is unnecessary For the profit and pleasure of that study are both so very obvious that a quick Reader will be before hand with me and imagine faster than I can write Besides that the post is taken up already and few Authors have travell'd this way but who have strewed it with Rhetorick as they pass'd For my own part who must confess it to my shame that I never read any thing but for pleasure it has alwayes been the most delightful Entertainment of my life But they who have employ'd the study of it as they ought for their instruction for the regulation of their private manners and the management of publick affairs must agree with me that it is the most pleasant School of Wisdom T is a familiarity with past Ages and an acquaintance with all the Heroes of them 'T is if you will pardon the similitude a Prospective-Glass carrying your Soul to a vast distance and taking in the farthest objects of Antiquity It informs the understanding by the memory It helps us to judge of what will happen by shewing us the like revolutions of former times For Mankind being the same in all ages agitated by the same passions and mov'd to action by the same interests nothing can come to pass but some President of the like nature has already been produc'd so that having the causes before our eyes we cannot easily be deceiv'd in the effects if we have Judgment enough but to draw the parallel God t is true with his divine Providence over-rules and guides all actions to the secret end he has ordain'd them but in the way of humane causes a wise Man may easily discern that there is a natural connection betwixt them and tho he cannot foresee accidents or all things that possibly can come he may apply examples and by them foretell that from the like Counsels will probably succeed the like events And thereby in all concernments and all Offices of life be instructed in the two main points on which depend our happiness that is what to avoid and what to choose The Laws of History in general are truth of matter method and clearness of expression The first propriety is necessary to keep our understanding from the impositions of falshood For History is an Argument fram'd from many particular examples or inductions If these Examples are not true then those measures of life which we take from them will be false and deceive us in their consequence The second is grounded on the former for if the method be confus'd if the words or expressions of thought are any way obscure then the Idea's which we receive must be imperfect and if such
splendour and number of his Triumphs in his comparison betwixt him and Agesilaus I believe says he that if Xenophon were now alive and would indulge himself the liberty to write all he could to the advantage of his Heroe Agesilaus he would be asham'd to put their acts in competition In his comparison of Sylla and Lysander there is says he no manner of equality either in the number of their victories or in the danger of their Battels for Lysander only gain'd two naval fights c. Now this is far from partiality to the Grecians He who wou'd convince him of this vice must shew us in what particular Judgment he has been too favourable to his Countrymen and make it out in general where he has faild in matching such a Greek with such a Roman which must be done by shewing how he could have pair'd them better and naming any other in whom the resemblance might have been more perfect But an equitable Judge who takes things by the same handle which Plutarch did will find there is no injury offer'd to either party tho there be some disparity betwixt the persons For he weighs every circumstance by it self and judges separately of it Not comparing Men at a lump nor endeavouring to prove they were alike in all things but allowing for disproportion of quality or fortune shewing wherein they agreed or disagreed and wherein one was to be preferr'd before the other I thought I had answer'd all that cou'd reasonably be objected against our Authors judgement but casually casting my eye on the works of a French Gentleman deservedly famous for Wit and Criticism I wonder'd amongst many commendations of Plutarch to find this one reflection As for his Comparisons they seem truly to me very great but I think he might have carried them yet farther and have penetrated more deeply into humane nature There are folds and recesses in our minds which have escap'd him he judges man too much in gross and thinks him not so different as he is often from himself The same person being just unjust merciful and cruel which qualities seeming to bely each other in him he Attributes their inconsistences to forreign causes Infine if he had discrib'd Catiline he wou'd have given him to us either prodigal or Covetous That alieni appetens sui profusus was above his reach He could never have reconcil'd those contrarieties in the same subject which Salust has so well unfolded and which Montaign so much better understood This Judgment cou'd not have proceeded but from a man who has a nice taste in Authors and if it be not altogether just 't is at least delicate but I am confident that if he please to consider this following passage taken out of the life of Sylla he will moderate if not retract his censure In the rest of his manners he was unequal irregular different from himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He took many things by rapine he gave more Honour'd men immoderately and us'd them contumeliously was submissive to those of whom he stood in need insulting over those who stood in need of him So that it was doubtful whether he were more form'd by nature to arrogance or flattery As to his uncertain way of punishing he would sometimes put men to death on the least occasion at other times he would pardon the greatest Crimes So that judging him in the whole you may conclude him to have been naturally cruel and prone to vengeance but that he could remit of his severity when his interests requir'd it Here methinks our Author seems to have sufficiently understood the folds and doubles of Sylla's disposition for his Character is full of variety and inconsistences Yet in the conclusion 't is to be confess'd that Plutarch has assign'd him a bloody nature The clemency was but artificial and assum'd the cruelty was inborn But this cannot be said of his rapine and his prodigality for here the alieni appetens sui profusus is as plainly describ'd as if Plutarch had borrow'd the sense from Salust And as he was a great Collector perhaps he did Nevertheless he judg'd rightly of Sylla that naturally he was cruel For that quality was predominant in him and he was oftener revengeful than he was merciful But this is sufficient to vindicate our Authors Judgment from being superficial and I desire not to press the Argument more strongly against this Gentleman who has Honour'd our Country by his long Residence amongst us It seems to me I must confess that our Author has not been more hardly treated by his Enemies in his comparing other Men than he has been by his friends in their comparing Seneca with him And herein even Montaign himself is scarcely to be defended For no man more esteem'd Plutarch no man was better acquainted with his excellences yet this notwithstanding he has done too great an honour to Seneca by ranking him with our Philosopher and Historian him I say who was so much less a Philosopher and no Historian T is a Reputation to Seneca that any one has offer'd at the comparison The worth of his Adversary makes his defeat advantagious to him and Plutarch might cry out with Justice Qui cum victus erit mecum certasse feretur If I had been to find out a parallel for Plutarch I should rather have pitch'd on Varro the most learned of the Romans if at least his Works had yet remain'd or with Pomponius Atticus if he had written But the likeness of Seneca is so little that except the ones being Tutor to Nero and the other to Trajan both of them strangers to Rome yet rais'd to the highest dignities in that City and both Philosophers tho of several Sects for Seneca was a Stoick Plutarch a Platonician at least an Academick that is half Platonist half Sceptick besides some such faint resemblances as these Seneca and Plutarch seem to have as little Relation to one another as their native Countries Spain and Greece If we consider them in their inclinations or humours Plutarch was sociable and pleasant Seneca morose and melancholly Plutarch a lover of conversation and sober feasts Seneca reserv'd uneasie to himself when alone to others when in Company Compare them in their manners Plutarch every where appears candid Seneca often is censorious Plutarch out of his natural humanity is frequent in commending what he can Seneca out of the sowrness of his temper is prone to Satyr and still searching for some occasion to vent his gaul Plutarch is pleas'd with an opportunity of praising vertue and Seneca to speak the best of him is glad of a pretence to reprehend vice Plutarch endeavours to teach others but refuses not to be taught himself for he is always doubtful and inquisitive Seneca is altogether for teaching others but so teaches them that he imposes his opinions for he was of a Sect too imperious and dogmatical either to be taught or contradicted And yet Plutarch writes like a man of a confirm'd probity Seneca like one
nor approving of it then indeed he seem'd to put a great Affront upon them whereupon he suddenly disappearing a short while after the Senate fell under shrewd Suspicions and Calumnies He disappear'd on the Nones of July as they now call the month which was then Quintilis leaving nothing of certainty to be related of his Death only the time as you hear for there are now upon that day many Ceremonies perform'd in resemblance of that Misfortune Neither is this uncertainty to be thought strange seeing the manner of the Death of Scipio Africanus who died at his own home after Supper is neither much credited nor disprov'd for some say he died easily suddenly as it were of his own accord being naturally a sickly Man others that he poyson'd himself others again that his Enemies breaking in upon him in the night stifled him Scipio too when he was dead lay open to be seen of all and indeed his Body gave some suspicion and a reasonable discovery of the Fact but of Romulus when he vanish'd was neither the least part of his Body or rag of his Cloaths to be seen So that some fancied the Senators having fallen upon him cut his Body into pieces and each took a part away in his bosom others think his disappearance was neither in the Temple of Vulcan nor with the Senators only by but that it happen'd as he was haranguing the People without the City near a Place call'd the Goats Marsh on the sudden most wonderful Disorders and Alterations beyond expression rose in the Air for the face of the Sun was darkned and the day was turn'd into an unquiet and turbulent night made up of terrible Thunderings and boisterous Winds raising Tempests from all Quarters which scattered the Rabble and made them fly but the Senators kept close together The Tempest being over and the light breaking out when the People gather'd again they misss'd and enquir'd for their King but the Senators would not let them search or busie themselves about the Matter but commanded them to honour and worship Romulus as one taken up to the Gods and about to be to them of a good Prince now a propitious God The Multitude hearing this went away rejoycing and worshipping him in hopes of good things from him but there were some who canvassing the Matter more severely and rigorously accus'd and aspers'd the Patricians as Men that persuaded the People to believe ridiculous Tales when they themselves were the Murderers of the King Things being in this disorder one they say of the Patricians of a noble Family and most honest Conversation and withal a most faithful and familiar Friend of Romulus himself who came with him from Alba Julius Proculus by Name stepping into the Company and taking a most sacred Oath protested before them all that Romulus appear'd to and met him traveling on the Road comelier and fairer than ever dress'd in shining and flaming Armour and he being affrighted at the Apparition said Vpon what Occasion or Resentments O King did you leave us here liable to most unjust and wicked Surmises and the whole City destitute in most bitter Sorrow And that he made Answer It pleas'd the Gods O Proculus we should remain so long a time amongst Men as we did and having built a City the greatest in the World both in Empire and Glory we should again return to Heaven but farewel and tell the Romans that by the exercise of Temperance and Fortitude they shall far exceed all humane Power and we will be to you the propitious God Quirinus This seem'd very credible to the Romans both upon the Honesty and Oath of him that spoke it and a certain divine Passion like an Enthusiasm seized on all Men for no body contradicted it but laying aside all Jealousies and Detractions they prayed to Quirinus and saluted him God This is like some of the Graecian Fables of Aristeas the Proconnesian and Cleomedes the Astypalaeian for they say Aristeas died in a Fuller's Work-house and his Friends coming to him his Body vanish'd and that some presently after coming a Journey said they met him travelling towards Croton And that Cleomedes being an extraordinary strong and gygantic Man and withal crazed and mad committed many desperate Freaks At last in a certain School-house striking a Pillar that sustain'd the Roof with his Fist broke it in the middle so the House fell and destroyed the Children in it and being pursued he fled into a great Chest and shutting to the Lid held it so fast that many Men with all their strength could not force it open afterwards breaking the Chest to pieces they found no Man in it alive or dead at which being astonish'd they sent to consult the Oracle at Delphi to whom the Prophetess made this Answer Of all the Heroes Cleomede is last They say too the Body of Alomeno as she was carrying to her Grave vanish'd and a Stone was found lying on the Bier And many such Improbabilities do your fabulous Writers relate deifying Creatures naturally mortal tho' altogether to disown a divine Power is an unholy and disingenuous thing so again to mix Heaven and Earth is as ridiculous therefore we must reject such Vanities being assur'd that according to Pindar All humane Bodies yield to Deaths decree The Soul survives to all eternity For that alone is deriv'd from the Gods thence it comes and thither it returns not with the Body but when it is most free and separated from it and is altogether pure and clean and disengag'd from the flesh for the dry Soul as Heraclitus phrases it is best which flies out of the Body as Lightning breaks from a Cloud but that which is clogg'd and incumber'd with the Body is like a gross and cloudy Vapour hard to be kindled and mount on high We must not therefore contrary to Nature send the Bodies too of good Men to Heaven but again we must really believe that according to a divine Nature and Justice their vertuous Souls are translated out of Men into Heroes out of Heroes into demi-Gods out of demi-Gods if they are as by expiation perfectly purg'd and sanctified and disburden'd of all Passions attending Mortality they are not as in any humane Polity alter'd but really and according to right Reason chang'd and translated into Gods receiving the greatest and most blessed perfection Romulus his sirname Quirinus some say signifies as much as Mars or Warlike others that he was so call'd because the Citizens were call'd Quirites others because the Ancients call'd a Dart or Spear Quiris for the Statue of Juno placed on a Spear was call'd Quiritis and the Dart in the King's Palace was call'd Mars and those that behav'd themselves valiantly in War were usually presented with a Dart and that therefore Romulus being a martial God or a God of Darts was call'd Quirinus and there is a Temple built to his Honour on a Mount call'd from him Quirinalis The day he vanish'd on
Lacedemonians should be well beaten Antisthenes too one of the Scholars of Socrates said well of the Thebans who were become very proud for their single Victory at Leuctres That they look'd like School-boys who newly had beaten their Master These indeed were merry Sayings but yet may serve to testifie the opinion men then had of the Spartans However it was not the design of Lycurgus that his City should govern a great many others he thought rather that the happiness of a Kingdom as of a private man consisted chiefly in the exercise of Vertue and mutual love of the Inhabitants his principal aim was to make them nobly minded content with their own not apt to follow vain hopes but moderate in all their enterprises and by consequence able to maintain themselves and continue long in safety And therefore all those who have written well of Politicks as Plato Diogenes Zeno and several others have taken Lycurgus for their Model as appears by their Writings but these great men left onely vain projects and words behind them whereas Lycurgus without writing any thing left a flourishing Government which as it was never thought of before him so can it scarcely be imitated in following ages so that he stands for an undeniable proof that a perfect wise man was not so mere a notion and chymaera as some men thought He hath obliged the world not with one single Man but with a whole Nation of Philosophers and therefore deserves preference before all other Statists because he put that in practice of which they onely had the idaea Aristotle himself was so convinc'd of his merit that he acknowledges they did him less honour after his death than he deserv'd although they built Temples and offered Sacrifice to him as to a God It is reported that when his Bones were brought home to Sparta they were struck with Lightning an accident which befell no eminent person but himself and Euripides who was buried at Arethusa a City of Macedon and this may serve for consolation to those who have an honour for that excellent Poet That he had the same fate with that holy man and favourite of the Gods Some say Lycurgus dy'd in the City of Cirrha others that he dy'd at Elis and others at Crete in a Town of which call'd Pergamy his Tomb was to be seen close by the High-way side He left but one Son nam'd Antiorus who dy'd without issue His relations and Friends kept an annual Commemoration of him and the days of the Feast were called Lycurgides Aristocrates the Son of Hipparchus says that he dy'd in Crete and that the Candiots at his desire when they had burn'd his Body cast the Ashes into the Sea for fear lest that if his Reliques should be transported to Lacedaemon the people might pretend themselves released from their Oaths and make innovations in the Government And thus much may suffice for the Life and Actions of Lycurgus NUMA POMPILIUS THE LIFE OF NUMA POMPILIUS English'd from the Greek By Paul Rycaut Esq THough many Noble Families of Rome derive their Original from Numa Pompilius yet there is great diversity amongst Historians concerning the time in which he reigned a certain Writer called Clodius in a Book of his entituled The Chronology of past times averrs that the ancient Registers of Rome were lost when that City was sacked by the Gauls and that those which are now extant are counterfeited to flatter and serve the humour of great men who are pleased to have their pedigree derived from some ancient and noble Lineage though in reallity that Family hath no relation to them and though it be commonly reported that Numa was a Scholar and a familiar acquaintance of Pythagoras yet it is again contradicted by those who affirm that he neither was acquainted with the Grecian Language nor Learning and that he was a person of that natural Talent and abilities of Mind as of himself to attain unto Vertue or else that his inclinations were cultivated by some foreign Instructour whose Rules and Doctrine were more excellent and sublime than those of Pythagoras Some affirm also that Pythagoras was not a contemporary with Nama but lived at least five Ages after him howsoever it is probable that some other Pythagoras a native of Sparta who in the third year of Numa's reign which was about the sixteenth Olympiad won a Prize at the Olympick Race might be the person who in his Travels through Italy having gained an acquaintance and familiarity with Numa might administer some directions and rules to him for the constitution of his Kingdom for which reason at the instigation of this Pythagoras many of the Laconian Laws and Customs might probably be introduced amongst the Roman Institutions Nor is it true that Numa was descended of the Sabines who declare themselves to be a Colony of the Lacedemonians nor can we make any just calculate from the periods of the Olympick Games which though lately published by one Elias Hippia yet carry not sufficient force of argument and authority to render them authentick Wherefore what we have collected of most assured truth concerning Numa we shall deliver taking our beginning from that place which is most pertinent to our purpose It was the thirty seventh year accounted from the Foundation of Rome when Romulus then reigning did on the fifth day of the Month of July called the Capratine Nones offer a publick Sacrifice at the Lake of Capra in presence of the Senate and People of Rome But then on a sudden arose so furious a Tempest which with black Clouds and Thunder rending the Air made an eruption on the Earth which affrighted the common people with such confusion that they fled and were dispersed In this Whirlwind Romulus disappeared his Body being never since found either living or dead This accident gave occasion to the world to censure very hardly the practice of the Patricians as if that they being weary of Kingly Government and exasperated of late by the imperious deportment of Romulus towards them had plotted against his Life and made him away that so they might assume the Authority and Government into their own hands but this report was soon confuted by the testimony of Proclus a noble person who swore that he saw Romulus catched up into Heaven in his Arms and Vestments and as he ascended cry'd out that they should hereafter style him by the name of Quirinus which attestation gained so much credit in the minds of the People that they ordain'd Divine honours to be perform'd towards him as to one not dead but translated to a sublimer state above the condition of mortal nature This commotion being appeased the City was greatly divided about the election of another King for the minds of the ancient Romans and the new Inhabitants were not as yet grown into that perfect union and coalition of spirits but that there were diversities of Factions amongst the Commonalty and jealousies and
emulations amongst the Senatours for though all agreed that it was necessary to have a King yet what Person or of what Nation was the dispute For those who had been builders of the City with Romulus though they had already yielded a share of their Lands and dwellings to the Sabines who were Aliens yet could not be perswaded to resign into their hands the Regal Authority On the other side the Sabines alledged that their King Tatius being deceased they had peaceably submitted to the obedience of Romulus so that now their turn was come to have a King chosen out of their own Nation nor did they esteem themselves inferiour to the Romans nor to have contributed less than they to the increase of Rome which without their numbers and association could never have merited the name of a City Thus did both parties argue and dispute their cause but lest in the mean time Sedition and discord should occasion Anarchy and confusion in the Common-wealth it was agreed and ordained That the hundred and fifty Senatours should interchangeably execute the Office of supreme Magistrate and with all the formalities and rites of Regality offer the solemn Sacrifices and dispatch judicial Causes for the space of six hours by day and six by night the which vicissitude and equal distribution of power would remove all emulation from amongst the Senatours and envy from the people when they could behold one elevated to the degree of a King levelled in a few hours after to the private condition of a Subject which Form of Government was termed by the Romans Interregnum Nor yet could this plausible and modest way of Rule escape the censure of the Vulgar who termed it a design of some few who to abolish the Kingly Government intended to get the power into their own hands and therefore to circumvent this plot they came at length to this conclusion that the party which did elect should choose one out of the body of the other that if the Romans were Electours they were to make choice of a Sabine and if the Sabines elected they were to choose a Roman this was esteemed the best expedient to reconcile all parties and interests for that the created Prince would be obliged to favour the one for their suffrages in his election as he was the other on score of relation and consanguinity In pursuance of this agreement the Sabines remitted the choice to the ancient Romans being more inclinable to receive a Sabine King elected by the Romans than to see a Roman exalted by the Sabines consultations being accordingly held Numa Pompilius of the Sabine race was elected a person so famous and of that high reputation that though he were not actually residing at Rome yet no sooner was he nominated than accepted by the Sabines with applause and acclamation equal to that freedom which the Romans shewed in his election The choice being declared and made publick principal men of both parties were appointed to compliment and intreat the Prince that he would be pleased to accept the administration of the Kingly Government Now this Numa resided at a famous City of the Sabines called Cures whence both the Romans and Sabines gave themselves the name of Quirites as a comprehensive name for both Associates Pomponius an illustrious person was his Father and he the youngest of his four Sons being by Divine Providence born on the eleventh of the Kalends of May which was the day on which the Foundation of Rome was laid he was endued with a Soul rarely tempered by Nature and disposed to Vertue and excellently improved by Learning Patience and the studies of Philosophy by which advantages of Art he regulated the disorderly motions of the Mind and rendred Violence and Oppression which had once an honourable esteem amongst the barbarous Nations to be vile and mean making it appear that there was no other Fortitude than that which subdu'd the Affections and reduc'd them to the terms and restraints of Reason Thus whilst he banished all luxury and softness from his own home he gave a clear and manifest indication to all Citizens and strangers of his sound and impartial judgment not delighting himself in divertisements or profitable acquisitions but in the worship of the immortal Gods and in the rational contemplation of their Divine Power and Nature to all which renown and fame he added this farther glory that he took Tatia for his Wife who was the Daughter of that Tatius whom Romulus had made his Associate in the Government nor yet did the advantage of this Marriage swell his vanity to such a pitch as to desire to dwell with his Father-in-law at Rome but rather to content himself to inhabit with hâ—s Sabines and cherish his own Father in his old Age the like inclinations had also Tatia who preferred the private condition of her Husband before the honours and splendour she might have enjoyed in her Father's Court. This Tatia as is reported after she had lived for the space of thirteen years with Numa in conjugal society dyed and then Numa leaving the conversation of the Town betook himself to a Country life and in a solitary manner dwelt in the Groves and Fields consecrated to the Gods where the common fame was he gained such acquaintance and familiarity with the Goddess Egeria that he lived in those retirements free from all disturbances and perturbations of mind and being inspired with the sublime and elevated pleasure of a celestial marriage he had arrived to a beatitude in this life and to a clear notion of Divine Sciences There is no doubt but that such fancies as these have had their original from ancient Fables such as the Phrygians recount of Atis the Bythinians of Herodotus the Arcadians of Endymion and a thousand other Demons which past Ages recorded for Saints that were beatified and beloved of the Gods nor doth it seem strange if God who places not his affection on Horses or Birds should not disdain to dwell with the vertuous and entertain a spiritual conversation with wise and devout Souls though it be altogether irrational to believe that the Divine Essence of any God or Demon is capable of a sensual or carnal love or passion for humane Beauty And yet the wise Egyptians did not conceive it an absurd fancy to imagin that a Divine Essence might by a certain spiritual impulse apply it self to the nature of a Woman and lay the first beginnings of generation though on the other side they concluded it impossible for the Male-kind to have any congress or mixture with a Goddess not considering that there can be no real coition but where there is a mutual communication of one to the other The truth of the matter is this those men are onely dear to the Gods who are vertuous and those are beloved by them whose actions are regulated by the rules of Divine Wisedom and therefore it was no errour of those who feigned that Phorbas Hyacinthus
as Solon did but augmented the old with almost a double number He erected the Office of Questors lest the Consul if good should not have leisure otherwise to attend greater matters or if bad should have any temptation to unjustice having the Government and Treasury in his hands The aversion to tyranny was greater in Poplicola for whosoever endeavour'd an usurpation his punishment by Solon's Law commenc'd onely upon conviction but Poplicola made it death before a trial And though Solon justly gloried that when things without the least aversion of the Citizens were presented to his Sovereignty he refus'd the offer yet Poplicola merited not less who finding a tyrannical Government made it more popular by not using the Authority he might But we must allow that Solon knew it before Poplicola for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An even hand will an even state maintain Holding not too loose nor yet too strait a rein But the remission of debts was more peculiar to Solon which much strengthened the Citizens liberty for the Law intending a level little avail'd if the debts of the poor prevented that equality and where they seem'd chiefly to exercise their liberty as in debates elections and administrations of their Offices they were overrul'd by the rich yielding themselves to their disposal But 't is more extraordinary that rebellion attending usually this remission of debts yet he apply'd this as a desperate remedy and seasonably allay'd their heats by his vertue and esteem which was above the infamy or detraction that could arise from this act The beginning of his Government was more glorious for he was himself an original and followed no example and without the aid of an Allie did great things by his own conduct yet the death of Poplicola was more happy and admired for Solon saw the dissolution of his own Commonwealth but Poplicola preserv'd his inviolable till the Civil Wars Solon leaving his Laws engraven in Wood but destitute of a defender departed Athens whilst Poplicola remaining in his magistracy establish'd the Government and though Solon was sensible of Pisistratus's ambition yet was not able to suppress it but sunk under the new establish'd Tyranny whereas Poplicola utterly subverted and dissolved a potent Monarchy strongly settled by long continuance being nothing inferiour to Solon in vertue and disposition and withall favourably assisted with power and fortune to accomplish his vertuous designs and as for martial exploits Daimachus Plataeensis does not so much as attribute the Wars against the Megarenses to Solon as is before intimated But Poplicola in great encounters both as a private Souldier and Commander obtain'd the victory As to the managery of publick affairs Solon in a mimical way and by a counterfeit shew of madness solicited the enterprise of Salamis whereas Poplicola in the very beginning nothing daunted at the greatest enterprises oppos'd Tarquin detected the Conspiracy and being principally concern'd both in preventing the escape and afterwards punishing the Traitours he not onely excluded the Tyrants from the City but frustrated likewise all their expectations from thence who as in matters of conflict tumult or opposition he behaved himself with courage and resolution so in peaceable debates where perswasion and condescension were requisite he was more to be commended Porsenna a terrible and invincible Enemy by his means being reconciled and made a Friend Some may perhaps object that Solon recovered Salamis for the Athenians which they had lost whereas Poplicola receded from part of what the Romans were presently possess'd of but judgment is to be made of actions according to the times in which they were perform'd The conduct of a wise Politician is ever suted to the present posture of affairs who often by forgoing a part saves the whole and by yielding in a small matter secures a greater as Poplicola who by restoring what the Romans had lately usurped saved their undoubted patrimony and moreover procured the Stores of the enemy for them who were very much straitned to secure their City For permitting the decision of the Controversie to his Adversary he not onely got the victory but what likewise he would willingly have given to have overcome Porsenna putting an end to the War and leaving them all the provision of his Camp through a perswasion of the vertue and gallant disposition of the Romans which the Consul had impress'd upon him THEMISTOCLES THE LIFE OF THEMIS TOCLES THE ATHENIAN Translated out of the Greek By Edward Brown M. D. THE obscure Family of Themistocles gave some beginning to his honour and made his glory shine the brighter His Father Neocles was none of the most splendid of Athens but of the Division of Phrear and of the Line of Leontes and by his Mother's side as it is reported he was illegitimate I am not of the noble Grecian race I 'm poor Abrotanon and born in Thrace Yet 'mong the Greeks my fame shall never cease For them I brought forth great Themistocles Yet Phanias writes that the Mother of Themistocles was not of Thracia but of Caria and that her name was not Abrotanon but Euterpe and Neanthes adds further that she was of the City of Halicarnassus in Caria upon which consideration when the Strangers and those that were but of the half bloud or had but one Parent an Athenian were to perform their exercise at Cynosarges a wrastling place without the Gates dedicated to Hercules who was also under some illegitimacy and was not one of the great immortal Gods but had a mortal Woman for his Mother Themistocles persuaded divers of the young Noblemen to accompany him to anoint and exercise themselves together at Cynosarges in doing which he seemed with some ingenuity to take away the distinction between the truly Noble and the Stranger and between those of the whole and those of the half bloud of Athens However it is certain that he was related to the House of Licomedes for Simonides reports that he rebuilt the Chapel of Phlyes belonging to that Family and beautified it with Pictures and other Ornaments after it had been burnt by the Persians It is confess'd by all that from his youth he was of an impetuous nature full of spirit apprehensive and of a good understanding ever resolving to undertaking great actions and manage publick affairs The vacations and times of recreations from his studies he spent not in play or in idleness as other youths but would be always inventing or putting in order some Oration or Declamation the subject of which was generally the excusing or accusing his companions so that his Master would often say to him Boy thou canst never be any thing mean or indifferent but must at some time or other prove either a most heroick glorious blessing or a most destructive plague and ruine to thy Country He received very slowly and negligently such instructions as were given him to improve his manners and behaviour or to make him skilfull in any pleasure
passionately concerned for the King revealed this to him that he might hasten towards the Asiatick Seas and pass over into his own Dominions and in the the mean he would cause delays and hinder the Confederates from pursuing him Xerxes no sooner heard this but being very much terrified retreated out of Greece with all speed The prudent conduct of Themistocles and Aristides and the advantageous management of this affair was afterwards more fully understood at the Battel of Plataea where Mardonius with a very small portion of the Forces of Xerxes put the Greeks in danger of losing all Herodotus writes that of all the Cities of Greece Aegina performed the best service in the War in which also all men yielded to Themistocles though some out of envy did it unwillingly and when they returned to the entrance of Peloponnesus where the Souldiers delivered their Suffrages by laying a Stone upon the Altar to determine who was most worthy every one gave the first Vote for himself and the second for Themistocles The Lacedemonians carried him with them to Sparta where giving the rewards of Valour to Eurybiades and of Wisedom and Conduct to Themistocles they crowned him with Olive gave him precedency presented him with the richest Coach in the City and sent three hundred young men to accompany him to the confines of their Country and at the next Olympian Games when Themistocles entred the place where those Exercises were performed the Spectatours took no further notice of those who strove for Mastery but spent the whole day in looking upon him shewing him to the Strangers admiring him and applauding him by clapping their hands and all other expressions of joy which so delighted him that he confessed to his Friends that he then reaped the fruit of all his labours for the Greeks he was in his own nature a great lover of honour as is evident from those things which are recorded of him When he was chosen Admiral by the Athenians he ended no business fully publick nor private but deferred all till the day they were to set sail that dispatching much business together and having to doe with all sorts of men he might appear great and able to perform all things Viewing the dead Bodies cast up by the Sea he perceived Collars and Chains of Gold about them yet passed on onely shewing them to a Friend that followed him saying Take you these things for you are not Themistocles He said to Antiphates a young Nobleman who had formerly behaved himself haughtily towards him but now in his glory obsequiously waited upon him young man we are in the right and now we doe both as we should doe He said that the Athenians did not honour him or admire him but when they were in danger they sheltred themselves under him as they do in stormy foul weather under a Plane-tree and when they have fair weather again they pull off its Leaves and Fruit and cut down its fairest Branches A Seriphian telling him that he had not obtained this honour by himself but by the greatness and splendour of his City he replied You speak truth for I should never have been esteemed if I had been of Seriphus nor would you have come to any thing though you had been of Athens A Commander of the Army who thought he had performed considerable service for the Athenians boasting and comparing his actions with those of Themistocles he told him that the day after the Festival reproached the Festival that upon her day those who were laborious and industrious refreshed themselves but upon the Festival the sluggard and luxurious enjoyed all things to which the Festival replyed it is true yet if I had not been before you you had not been at all so if Themistocles had not been before you where had you been now Laughing at his own Son who was somewhat too bold through the indulgence and fondness of his Mother he told him that he had the most power of any one in Greece for the Athenians command the rest of Greece I command the Athenians your Mother commands me and you command your Mother Loving to be singular in all things when he had Land to sell he ordered the Cryer to give notice that there were good neighbours near it Of two who made love to his Daughter he preferred the Vertuous before the Rich saying he desired a Man without Riches rather than Riches without a Man with many such expressions After these things he began to build and wall the City of Athens having with Money corrupted the Lacedemonian Ephori and perswaded them not to be against it as Theopompus reports but as most relate it by over-reaching and deceiving them for being chosen by the Governours of Athens he went to Sparta where the Lacedemonians accusing him for rebuilding the Walls of the City of Athens and Poliarchus being sent on purpose from Aegina to plead against him he denied the fact bidding them to send to Athens to see whether it were so or no by which delay he got time for the building of the Wall and ordering the Athenians to seize upon those who were sent and keep them as Hostages for him when the Lacedemonians knew the truth they did him no hurt but hiding their anger for the present sent him away After this considering the great advantage of good Ports he fortified the Haven of Piraea and joyned the whole City to the Sea ordering the publick affairs contrary to the judgment of the old Kings of Athens who endeavouring to withdraw their Subjects from the Sea and sailing about and to accustom them to live by planting and tilling the Earth published the Discourse between Minerva and Neptune and how they contended for the patronage of the Athenians when Minerva by shewing to the Judges an Olive Tree was declared to be their tutelary Goddess but Themistocles did not onely joyn the Haven of Piraea to the City as the Poet Aristophanes observes but he joyned the City to the Haven and the Land to the Sea which encreased the power of the People against the Nobility the Authority coming into the hands of Watermen Mariners and Masters of Ships and ordered that the Pulpit built in the Market-place for publick Orations should be placed towards the Sea which the thirty Tyrants afterwards turned towards the Land supposing that great power by Sea would give life and encouragement to a popular Government but that Labourers and Husbandmen would be less offended at the greatness of the Nobility but Themistocles had a higher opinion of Sea forces After the departure of Xerxes when the Grecian Fleet was arrived at Pagasa where they wintered Themistocles in a publick Oration to the people of Athens telling them that he had a design to perform something that would be very beneficial and advantageous to the Athenians but that it was of such a nature that it could not be made publick or communicated to the people in general The Athenians ordered him to
his Cronies And of this number we are told Ephialtes made one he who broke up the power of the Areopagites the Council that sate on Mars his Hill and by that means according to Plato's expression gave the Citizens a large and racy draught of liberty which set the people so a-gog as the Play-wrights inform us that like a wild unruly Horse that had flung his Rider they would be ruled no longer but champed and bit Euboea and flounced and curvetted upon the other Isles Now Pericles designing to fuit the gravity of his life and the greatness of his spirit and sense with a befitting character of speech he to put that as it were a musical Instrument in tune put his Tutour Anaxagoras often upon the stretch and by a kind of Bow-dy gloss set off those accounts he gave of Nature with artificial Rhetorick For having beside his great natural parts by the study of nature attained this height of understanding and ability of turning and winding every thing to his own purpose to use the words of divine Plato and drawing whatever might be of advantage into the Art of speaking he got the start of all others by much Upon which account they say he had the sirname or nickname of Olympius given him the same title that Jupiter himself was called by though some are of opinion he was so named for those famous works and publick buildings wherewith he adorn'd the City others would have him so called from the great power he had in publick affairs whether of war or peace Nor is it unlikely or absurd to imagine that from the confluence of those many good qualities which belonged to the man himself the glory of such a Title might be conferred upon him However the Comedies of the then Masters of the Stage who both in good earnest and out of merriment too let fly many shrewd words at him do plainly shew that he got that appellation especially upon the account of his being an able Speaker by saying that he thunder'd and lightned when he harangued the people and that he carried a dreadfull Thunderbolt in his Tongue There is a saying also of Thucydides the Milesian stands on record spoken by him pleasantly enough upon Pericles his shrewdness of speech For Thucydides was a person one of them of great credit and repute and one who had for a very long time bandied against Pericles in the Government Now when Archidamus the King of the Lacedaemonians asked him whether he or Pericles were the better Wrestler he made this answer When I saith he have thrown him and given him a fair fall he by standing out in the denial saying that he had no fall gets the better of me and persuades people into a belief of what he says whether they will or no though they saw the quite contrary Howbeit the truth of it is that Pericles himself was very wary and carefull what and how he was to speak insomuch that always whenever he went up to the Tribunal or into the Pulpit to deliver himself he prayed to the Gods that no one word might unawares against his will slip from him which should be misbecoming or unsuitable to the matter in hand and the occasion he was to speak to Indeed he hath left nothing in writing behind him save onely some popular Decrees or Ordinances And there are but few in all of his notable Sayings which are recorded recorded as this for one that he gave order that they would take away the City and Isle of Aegina then possest by the Enemy as an Eye-sore from the Piraeum a port of Athens and this for another that he fancied he saw a War coming along towards them out of Peloponnesus now called the Morea Again when on a time Sophocles who was his Fellow-commissioner in the Generalship was going on board with him and praised the beauty of a Boy they met with in the way to the Ship Sophocles saith he a General ought not onely to have clean hands but eyes too meaning that a person in such an office and charge should not give way even to the temptations of sight And moreover Stesimbrotus hath this passage of him that as he was in an encomiastick Oration speaking of those who fell in the battel at Samos he said they were grown immortal as the Gods were For said he we do not see them themselves but onely by those honours we pay them and by those good things which they do injoy we guess and judge them to be immortal And the very same case it is went he on with those that dye in the service and defence of their Country Now whereas Thucydides makes such a description of Pericles his Aristocratical government that it went by the name of a Democracy but was indeed a government by a single person to wit under the conduct and at the pleasure of one man who was chief and many others say that by him the common people was first brought on and led along to the sharing of Lands by lot taken from the Enemy and to the dividing of publick moneys formerly reserved for the uses of war to be allowed them for seeing of Plays and Shows and to distributions of Salaries by which means being ill accustomed of a sober modest thrifty people that maintained themselves by their own labours they became riotous and debauched through the methods of policy then used let us consider the cause of this change in the things themselves as to matter of fact For indeed at the first as hath been said when he set himself against Cimon's great authority he did caress the people what he could and under hand curry favour with them But finding himself come short of his Competitour in wealth and moneys by which advantages the other was inabled to take care of the poor inviting every day some one or other of the Citizens that was in want to supper and bestowing cloaths on the aged people and breaking down the hedges and inclosures of Grounds to the intent that all that would might freely gather what fruit they pleased Pericles being snubb'd and kept under by these popular arts did by the advice of one Demonides Iensis turn himself to the distribution of the publick moneys as Aristotle hath told the story and in a short time having decoy'd and won the people what with those moneys allowed for Shows and for Courts of Justice and what with other bribes and largesses and supplies he made use of these methods against the Council of Areopagus of which he himself was no member as having not been chosen by lot either Annual Magistrate or Guardian of the Laws or King that is Governour of the sacred Rites nor Chieftain of the Wars For of old these Offices were conferr'd on persons by lot and they who had acquitted themselves well in the discharge of these trusts were advanced and taken into the Court of Areopagus Whereupon Pericles having gotten so