Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A32237
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The courtier's calling, shewing the ways of making a fortune, and the art of living at court, according to the maxims of policy & morality in two parts, the first concerning noblemen, the second concerning gentlemen / by a person of honour.
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Person of honour.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing C301; ESTC R12838
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89,719
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262
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accomplisht and understanding Person among a thousand Students That which they learn serves only to render them importunate and make them enterprise designes above their forces they perswade themselves that all the Truths of Philosophy are shut up in their Note-book and the dulness of their brains not being able to conceive any objection they believe that they have attain'd to the utmost perfection of Knowledge because they see nothing but with the eyes of their Tutor and Nature seems not to have given any other faculty to their friends but Memory We daily observe that there is nothing more hurtful than this sort of People who doubt of things and do not understand them 'T is from them Neque enini natae sunt haereses nisi dum scripturae bonae intelliguntur non benè Aug. that so many Heresies have infected Religion and so many Scruples have troubled the best Consciences 't is from them proceeded those rash judgements which fill'd the world with Libertines I remember that I once heard it asserted before a Great and Wise Prince that there was never any worse Policie than that of Francis the First who not being contented with having acquired the Renown of a Valiant Prince thought that his Glory would be imperfect if Posterity should not one day publish that he had also been the Father of the Learned and the Restorer of Learning This Passion caus'd him to erect more Colledges in his Dominions and in divers places establish Conveniencies for Scholars But this Prince did not perceive that he procured to himself a certain Evil in seeking an uncertain good He thought by this establishment to people France with Learned men but he made very few thereby but infected it with an infinite number of Persons unuseful to the Common-wealth I mean to say that he filled the Bar with Pettifoggers and Lawyers the Cities with impertinent idle Fellows and the Cloysters with lazy Monks In the mean time he neither extended the Doctrine nor augmented Piety in his Kingdom but diminished the number of Souldiers of Merchants of Labourers and of Mechanicks from whom the State hath its Defence its Riches its Food and Manufactures I cannot forbear admiring the Policy of the Turks which I finde as prudent as their Religion ridiculous It is not out of sottishness that they banished Learning out of Greece which was heretofore the great Nurse of the Muses when they subdued its Inhabitants and rendered them tributary to their Empire Their Conduct is too discreet to impute to them that Barbarism of which the World accuses them and which they seem to affect They understood more judiciously than we the value of the Sciences when they rendred them not so common and to conclude impartially they have done them far less injury by restraining them to a small number of Ingenious persons than we in prostituting them to all sorts of men They considered that as too great a quantity of Flambo's in a Salle filled with people offends them by their heat and smoak so a vast number of Scholars might very much prejudice the State by thinking to instruct their Country-men Thus they have not renounced the Lights of the Arts and Sciences but have moderated the number of Students and 't is in this particular chiefly that I admire their Judgement that they follow Nature as a Soveraign Mistriss in the instruction of their Children they constitute Judges of their inclinations to this or that Profession and according to their natural dispositions they are encouraged and employed CHAP. XV. That a learned Gentleman has the choice of all Professions and the Knowledge of the World is very requisite for him AMong the advantages which an ingenious person draws from his Studies I esteem not this the least that he has his choice of all professions If Fortune runs from him in the War he will overtake her in Peace There is nothing more required of him than application to excel all others in that which he undertakes If he will be a Souldier he will be more brave than the Brutish who are determined onely by the heat and impetuosity of their Blood which deprives them of the sense of the Danger But as by Nature so he is also disposed thereto by his Reason which represents to him the Perils such as they are perswading him to be resolute and undaunted and that Death is not an evil but the end of all evils and the consummation of our Repose If he should seek preferment by the Gown he is there as in his Center 't is here his minde exerts its faculties with pleasure and makes it self known by private conversations by publike actions and by his Writings I could extend much farther his advantages if I should pursue the Idea which I have thereof but I shall conclude with this last which I esteem above all others viz. That he may be Master of his own Liberty that he may gain Reputation and Wealth without dependance and subjection and he has no need of his address but to insinuate himself into the favour of the Prince when he shall once have obtained the approbation of the people It is true that the sublime Sciences are not made to be slaves and it is not reasonable that such as have right to instruct us as Masters should obey us as infeferiours Their price and their lustre are so great that they supply the defect of Riches and even the obscurity of Birth They have often plac'd men of a low extraction above the Lillies in Parliaments in Episcopal seats in the Conclave of Cardinals and even in St. Peter's Chair It seems that they alone joyned with Piety have been in all Ages required for the creating of great Prelates and Ministers of State And does not the Holy Scripture introduce Melchisedeck the high Priest without any genealogie or mention of his Parents although this was accounted the chiefest dignity among th◠people of Israel to learn us that the Sacred dignities of the Church ought to be the Portions of the Learned and the Pious But I do not perceive that I write unprofitably when I address my self onely to extraordinary Wits and that my Counsels will be condemned by them of vanity and imprudence seeing they have Lights which Eclipse mine and that I should be more discreet to ask their advice than to give them mine This would indeed be feared if I had a designe to instruct them but I speak to young men who have as yet onely natural dispositions to do well and are not determined in the election of their applications I here make them a draught of the beauty of the Sciences I shew them that they are ordinarily accompanied with Esteem with Glory and with Fortune when they are managed by a discreet Person It is not sufficient to be a great proficient in the learning of the University there is another Science which instructs us to make use thereof which is a Traveller that goes from house to house speaks neither Greek nor
of every thing concerning the Artillery to accompany the General Officers when they go to take a view of the places they designe to attaque or the Pass through which the Army must march to apply himself seriously to the study of Geometry and Fortification joyning the Theory with the Practice and to serve himself advantageously of all these Autfuit aut veniet nihil est presentis in illâ Morsque minus paâ—â— quà m mora mortis habet he must accustom himself to think that Death is not an evil that it meets as infallibly with the Cowards as the Valiant and that it is but a moment which terminates our fears aswel as our hopes When he shall be advanced to the Charge of a Captain he ought to look upon that but as one degree to ascend to that of a Master of the Camp and resolve to go as far as Worth and Valour can lead a Gentleman but he must ground his hopes upon the knowledge which he hath acquired and which can render him worthy of so great a Fortune Ignorance hinders often a Souldier from propounding to himself any considerable employ he must understand the function of a Captain before he can justly wish to be one When we perceive our own forces Seasit vim qâ—â—que saam our Soul has a certain vigorous quality which causes us to embrace the means of arriving at our ends It assumes a fierceness by which she surmounts all the difficulties which â—ecur she Arms her self with a resolution which causes her equally to despise the opposition both of Toils and Perils for without doubt by resolving stedfastly on that which we undertake we make a mighty progress in difficult matters and re-unite 〈◊〉 powers of our mindes by which they are also rendred fertil in inventions From hence proceeds that holdness accompanied with a confidence of succeeding well in our designes which wise men esteem so necessary and which Religion it self dâ—mands for the making of Miracles It is upon this sure Foundation that Pâ—mpey the Great said By knocking with his Foot he would make Souldiers spring out of the Earth And Caesar not regarding the most violent ragings of the Sea and Winds animated his Pilot by telling him that he had Caesar and his Fortune aboard Boldness and Resolution are necessary in a Martial man the one confronts and seeks dangers the other is not dejected by any bad accidents that persecute it Aâ—daces Fortuâ—a juvat tiâ—â—dâ—â—q â—epelâ—â— Great men have all been adventurous Alexander enterprized the Conquest of the World with 30000 men Caesar with 40000 took the City of Alesia belonging to the Gauls defended by 80000 Combatants and succoured by 200000 Souldiers of the same Nation Edward discomfited an Army of 40000 French with 7000 English and took King John Prisoner And King Gustavus Adolphus in our days made a descent into Pomerain with 8000 Swedes to fight against all the Forces of the Empire These mighty Successes are not always the effects of Fortune the Vertue of those who make the Enterprizes hath often the greatest share in them And it is very apparent that they are grounded upon some reason For as great men penetrate more profoundly into the Causes â—f things so they discover more clearly the possibility of their effects which were enveloped under contrary appearances From these prodigious examples we may descend to these particular Reasonings and affirm that a Gentleman after he has acquired the Sciences necessary for his profession ought continually to aspire to great Employs and to have more Zeal to deserve them than care to preserve his Life If he fixes his eyes upon them as the end of his hopes he cannot live without obtaining them of Fortune and will not wax old in the Army without an honourable Charge because his courage sollicites him to Enterprize not valuing the dangers and other obstacles that oppose themselves to his designes CHAP. V. That the Fortune of a Gentleman depends on the good or bad choice which he makes of a Master IF the Peace be so universal that he cannot get any Military employ and if the necessity of his affairs or his Passion of advancing his Fortune causes him to abandon his home and get himself a Service it is not to be doubted but his happiness will depend from the choice which he shall make of a Master To attend on a Lord who is not capable of advancing our Fortune is the same as to embark our selves in a leaky Vessel And to discern this we must endeavour to understand his Interest and Abilities for I may assert that if he be destitute of an Employment and has no good parts he is not proper to render a Gentleman happy We reason idly and sottishly to perswade our selves that he being rich will recompense us Never any Ingenious man built his Fortune upon the Purse of his Master If he be a Great Lord his Quality obliges him to great Expences and consequently puts him in a very bad condition of making such considerable Presents as may enrich a Gentleman and if he be not rich we can expect no benefit in his service Liberality is a Saint which has no Altars in the World and the greatest part of Noblemen have less knowledge of her than private Gentlemen The Respect which is given them from their Infancy perswades them that every thing is created for them they receive services as debâ—s that are paid them and not as gifts that are presented them they believe that their Bread has the faculty of making all those slaves that eat thereof they exact a Reverence as insupportable to those that render it as it is unjustly rendred to them that receive it and the quality of a Domestick makes them frequently forget the Merits of such as serve them Neither are they contented themselves to treat them without any respect but they force them sometimes to give respect to other persons much inferiour both in Merit and Extraction to them who have nothing recommendable but Wealth which exempts them from living in subjection Their Masters will permit these to sit down and be covered whilst they must stand behind them with their hats off One can hardly distinguish them in this posture from Valets de Chambre and they are sometimes abus'd like Villains It is very hard for a poor Gentleman to undergo all these grievous disasters Subjection is an evil which draws on a thousand others after it and therefore I do not admire that it should be so inconsistent with Worth and Vertue The Romans fought Six hundred years to win their liberty and the Switzers and Hollanders have hazarded all to regain theirs I esteem it the Soveraign good of this life when Fortune suffers us to enjoy it without want or ambition From hence I conclude that we ought never to engage it but with a probability of reassuming it one day with great advantage after having faithfully served CHAP. VI. That he ought to establish his esteem