another because on toucheth vs not more then another But our weake sight cannot support or suffer the darts and blowes of the Sunne as of some Torch or simple light Wee must then acknowledge and confesse that it is the obiect which toucheth it more or lesse sith Nature hath operated most wisely in vs in giuing vs senses which by their proper power and suggestion would beare themselues to our ruine and confusion Which would fall out if the effect that wee feele in our sight by the splendour of the Sunne proceeded onely from the visible facultie and not from the blowe or the touch of the Sunne But all obiects which come to strike our sight in a reasonable distance shee will be ioyfull in this meeting and feeling shee sees and knowes this obiect as much as shee can according to the resemblance and conformity betweene her and that which toucheth her Hearing is nothing else but a feeling of the tune or sound in this part the which accordingly more or lesse as it strikes our eare makes the sound graue or harsh sweet or displeasing and if it strike vs too rudely and violently it then not onely toucheth the eare but all the whole body as when a great noyse or thunder makes all things tremble and shake vnder vs and seemes to strike and astonish the foundations of houses by this suddaine and violent feeling In a word feeling is performed by the meanes of the ayre which according to the power of the obiect and as it is bent against vs or such part of our body makes either the visible the sound the smell the tast or the feeling which is vniuersally ouer all the body and which the common people beleeue doth onely merrit the name of feeling Neuerthelesse because in all doubtfull matters my humour is not to affirme any thing I therefore leaue to the opinion and iudgement of euery one the free choyse and liberty to beleeue what he pleaseth And I care not if they are one or many sith the diuersity of their functions seemes to merit if not an essentiall difference yet a different name It sufficeth that wee haue the centre of their operations in the common sence which together verifies their stile their rule their forme If he abuse it I appeale Hee is Iudge and party Neuerthelesse because the multiplicity of motions of that thing which passeth in our thoughts and which to this end is refined by the labour of the operation of vnderstanding seemes at first aboard to disburthen it selfe of that which is grossest in her and not to retaine but the simplest and most perfect Essence to make it the sweeter and more familiar to the tast and palate of the minde yet I doubt that shee estrangeth her selfe the more and that the more she is spiritualiz'd to our fantasie and minde the lesse shee discouereth her selfe and the more she growes great and corporall to our vnderstanding I meane she estrangeth her selfe from the truth SECTION III. Nature being iealous of secrets permits not the senses to discouer the essences of things nor that they can conuey any thing to our Vnderstanding that is not chang'd and corrupted by them in the passage THe so different opinion of things makes vs plainely see that wee are not yet arriued thereunto Wee cannot take hold of them in a good place wee deuest them at the entrance of their proper qualities and receiue new knowledge of the minde and such impression as shee pleaseth Of the obiect which presents it selfe to vs euery one of our senses seize that which is pleasing and proper to him except the essence that is to say the true being thereof so that all our Art is to know the obiect by this sort but not that he is of this sort Vice and the defect of our knowledge doth not change or alter it in any thing The childe which lookes thorowe a red glasse hath hee not cause to laugh to see thy face of that colour but hast thou not more cause to laugh to see how he is abused and deceiued and the soule which in our body will intermeddle to iudge all according as it is athwart so many grosse and thicke glasses as are our senses and susceptible of so many different colours Doth she afford lesse cause Againe if all that we see we sawe to be all of one sort wee might then establish a certaine knowledge of our ignorance and not of the thing for the true Being and Essence thereof is in it selfe and cannot discouer it selfe to our knowledge Truth cannot glide and passe into our vnderstanding because our senses change and corrupt that which it brings vs from without and that of things which by them comes into our fancies is obscured in its passage And as much difference and distance as there is betweene the thing and the image and resemblance thereof so much difference there is betweene the true reality of the thing and that which wee imagine wee know yea there is more for betweene man and his picture there is some resemblance but our senses being too weake to apprehend and comprehend that of truth cannot so much as represent vs the image or figure thereof because there is no comparison or resemblance betweene true and false But our senses deceiue themselues and contradict and contrary one the other as in painting the picture which in our eyes seemes a corporall statue is found smooth and flat when we feele it In these contrary apparances the one must needes be true and the other false if rather they are not both false The senses therefore do not carie the image of truth to common sense sith the image ought still to be the resemblance of the thing If wee presse the corner of our eye wee shall see two Candles for one Our hearing being somewhat stopped receiues sounds otherwise then they are The sicke Patient findes wine sowre and bitter which in health he holdes to be sweet and pleasant The Senses likewise finde themselues abused by the power of the vnderstanding The passions of the soule change their function Loue placeth a thousand rarities of beauty in her obiect and Hatred and Disdaine as many imperfections The Vermilion and the Ceruse which to our knowledge adornes and beautifies the face of a woman enflames our amorous desires and despight of all these shewes and apparances we say they will neuer fade or faile and wee shall be beleeued to haue farre more reason to quarell the truth thereof it selfe then to contradict it It is true that if thereon wee are prest or called in question wee cannot retire farther backe we must fight and it hazardeth the entire losse of Arts and Sciences In such a cause I know it is farre fitter to cast away our weapons then to vse them and not to support so vniust a quarell with so weake defences I know not who shall be iudge hereof and for my part I name and institute complesancie to be Arbitrator of this difference And
his Origine For where the defect is found vnited and linked to power there necessarily is formed desire But Man is knowne to want many things chiefely Vertue which is a perfect habitude Hee then desires it but this desire tendes to something which may bee truly purchased and obtained and where being ariued he findes his tranquillity or otherwise this his desire were in vaine So not finding it in the goods of Fortune but in Vertue it followes that there is another felicity besides that which is propos'd vs by Fortune Imperfection supposeth the diminution of any perfect thing because the nature of things hath not deriued its power and vigour from a defectiue and imperfect Nature but from a most compleat and full one It followes then that there is a point of Nobility from whence they haue degenerated and especially in the act of our soueraigne good from whence through errour and opinion man hath beene diuerted as from his obiect to follow a stranger the which because hee of himselfe cannot wholy appease our desire sufficiently demonstates and testifies by this imperfect beatitude that he is either the part the shadowe or the Image of some accomplished thing which is felicity But the part presupposeth the whole and the shadowe or image must necessarily haue relation to the body Wherefore of this imperfect happinesse wee may drawe a necessary consequence of the soueraigne good and indeede the wit of man in whatsoeuer extasie hee can be retaines in it selfe I know not what seede thereof But as the reeling Drunkard although hee cannot finde the way home doth not for all lose his desire to returne to his owne house So man being drunke with the delights and pleasures of the world doth not yet omit to desire this felicity which is proposed him by nature although by their enchantments hee no more knowâ—s what way to obserue and follow Mens actions although they are deriued of the vertues vices troubles of the soule and of other affections doe yet all tend to felicity but all mâ—n are not so happy to obtaine it This felicity is either actiue or contemplatiue This last haâ—h some thing more noble and yet more imperfect then the other His designe is more generous and noble but his execution is more imperfect yea it is more noble in that it seemes that by her man is made like vnto the Diuine nature In the actiue we shall finde some thing as strength and wisedome wherein we haue some common resemblance to beasts more imperfect in his execution First she depends of the actiue and according to the saying of Plato hath neede that all the troubles of the soule be appeased and dissipated because they very much disturbe conâ—emplation and yet she cannot passe without the goods of the body and of fortune which ought to be prepared to her by this when she wants nothing whereof shee ought to be furnished and assisted to aduance her with more ease and facility To what degree can shee ascend Perfection cannot bee bought or purchased in this world because of the obstacles which befall vs by the meanes of the body and the senses who by throwing too darke and thicke cloudes betweene the true and false hinder the soule that shee cannot enioy a perfect fâ—licity in the contemplation of truth Contrariwise the actiue who employes not her selfe but to correct those troubles which fall into the Soule by animating some when they withdrawe vs from our dutie and in stopping others when they make vs passe the bounds of reason ariues at last to the end of his enterprise and makes vs enioy in effect that good which shee proposeth her selfe Shee may easily leaue and omit contemplation which is somewhat lesse necessarie then the goods of the body Sciences or learning haue their vices and defects as Pride Vanity and Presumption which cannot be corrected but by the ayde of this Many haue beene happy without learning and Socrates for the regard thereof was not by the Oracle reputed the wisest man of the world but for the conduction and ordering of his manners Neuerthelesse as one good added to another makes it the greater so the contemplatiue brings some profit aduantage to the actiue felicity although neuerthelesse she seeme rather to offend then serue her For she beares with her a I know not what trouble to enquire and know which sells vs many light and triuiall shewes of contentments in regard of continuall sweat and labour and in the end discouereth vs the vanity of her pretences For all Learning which wee can purchase is not perfect but by reason of his obiect which is God or the Essence of things wherein he is if rather they be not in him as in their Soueraigne Head spring and fountaine But by those wayes and meanes which wee possesse it shee cannot bee but extreamely weake and imperfect being ore-vayled and obscured with an infinite number of shadowes and cloudes because it is not things and their Essences which conioyne themselues to our soule no more then bodies are seene in the Christall of Looking-glasses but onely their formes and representations So in steed of truth she receiues nothing but the resemblances and shadowes thereof as wee haue formerly obserued in the Tract of the senses And neuerthelesse shee wheeles and runnes round about obiects and proffereth vs her hands to stop and arrest the shadowes of our visions in steed of the body and the thing itselfe So that wee must not wonder if Learning cannot content or satisfie our desires and therefore serues but to disturbe vs because her formes and resemblances giue vs no essentiall nor solid thing but onely fill vs with I know not what ayrie emptie and superficiall which doth rather anger then appease vs Which absolutely contradicts our actiue felicity which is nothing else but a perfect tranquillity of the minde in the moderate vse of goods which shee enioyeth The vulgar and common sort of men assigne this felicity to bee in pleasures and voluptuousnesse imagining that the greatest part of those who are constituted in authoritie liue after that manner beleeuing that all euill is in griefe and affliction and they are not farre wide of the truth herein because all our actions still ayme at delight and pleasure which commonly accompanieth felicity as her shadow But this approaching end is not the last so that this imperfection sufficiently giues the lye to their beliefe and opinion The errors of others growe according to the proportion of their greatnesse for it seemes that the more Man is eleuated in fortune that thereby he either augments his faults or else makes them appeare the greater The Oeconomicall or Domesticall Man proposeth himselfe nothing but wealth and riches but it is a life too full of trouble and agitation the Enemie of reâ—â— and tranquillity and therefore of felicity Those who are dignified aboue the people hold that they are risen to that honour which the politique life seemes to propose for her end but there
her and without the fruit of this meditation which makes it so commendable A pretious Iewell indeed it is but farre more necessary to this little Common-weale for ornament and decencie then for absolute necessity For that which is in this manner necessary is vniuersall and equall as the heart is necessary to the life of man Reason is a faculty which although it haue her roote in the soule yet she cannot perfect her selfe without the assistance and concurrence of well disposed organes for the most accomplished is but errour iudge therefore what the most imperfect are it is but an accident whose defect changeth nothing the substance of Man Plato was no more a man then a common Porter was An inequality which sufficiently testifies that of absolute necessity it is not necessary to man But at last The Senses growe rebellious and mutinous and will proclaime their triumphes or Holliday in that which concernes their charge or duty of the minde because the minde so powerfully and soueraignly vsurpes vpon their iurisdiction and from this sedition as from the head spring or fountaine of all euills flowes the disorder and confusion which we finde in all things Arts and Learning are endomaged and damnified by the corruption of the senses which hauing no more right to iudge of good or euill will yet intermeddle to knowe true or false as is seene in those who denie Infinity because their grosse senses who would intrude themselues to bee parties in this difference can neuer agree with that which they cannot comprehend Or as those who denie the life or immortality of the Soule because they haue demaunded counsell of the senses which cannot approue of things so difficult and hard of disgestion and so seldome controuerted or proposed For the eye hath not seene nor the eare heard spoken of these discourses neither can Tast Smelling or Feeling giue any testimonies thereof To make them therefore know this Soule it must be as Cicero speakes of the Gods to the Epicurians not a body but as a body that it had not veines Arteries or bloud but as it were veines arteries and bloud that shee was and that shee was not that it had not a humane figure but as a humane figure not being able to represent the soule vnto vs no more then Painters who represent Angels vnder humane shapes and figures If Beasts could figure themselues out a God they would make him of their owne form and shape not beleeuing as an antient Philosopher affirmed that there is any fairer or better shaped then their owne And these men doe the same of the Soulâ— which they cannot otherwise comprehend or conceiue then vnder that of a body whose members possesse some place hauing her dimensions length breadth and depth vnder the very image and figure of man then which they beleeue there is no nobler or else they otherwise beleeue there is none at all or at least that it must be corporall So if it be corporall it must needes bee corruptible as indeede they themselues are wholly composed both of body and corruption And this is the preiudice which the Senses bring to those who haue caused it to bee beleeued in the iudgement which they should make of true or false But as the minde being farre more busie in motion and of a larger latitude and extent then the Senses hath caused a more apparant sensible and vniuersall disorder so shee will not allowe for good but onely that which is pleasing and delightfull to her She hath put new guards ouer all the goods of Nature and will not without her permission and consent that it should bee lawfull for vs to enioy any of them And yet neuerthelesse among those things which we hold and tearme good wee may easily obserue and remarke those that she hath charged corrupted Those goods which carie the marke and seale of Nature imprinted on their fore-heads doe content vs and satisfie and appease by their enioyance the burning desire which hath so violently caused vs to re-search and seeke them And contrariwise the others doe but encrease this feruent desire or thirst which the opinion and vice of our minde hath enkindled in vs The goods which are of his owne inuention doe neither appertaine to the minde or the body For they are neuters and indifferent The minde as it were commitâ—ing adultery with the body hath engendered them as so many Monsters which participate some thing both of the one and the other Of the minde the estimation price and value Of the body that which they containe in them of materiall and terrestriall That which they haue in them of more naturall or of speciall and indiuiduall difference doth not properly belong either to the one or the other It is reported That Mules who are a third different sort of beasts which two former haue propagated are incapable to engender So those goods or priuiledges of Nature which deriue their Being from such different Natures doe neuer of themselues engender any good either to the minde or the body They are instruments whereof we indifferently make vse either to good or euill and which for the most part serue onely to foment our vices and passions But as these good things are neuters and indifferent so the euill which likewise proceedes of his Artifice ought not to haue greater priuiledges and therefore the effect which they produce in vs which we tearme griefe or paine cannot be tearmed so but very wrongfully and abusiuely As imprisonment banishment losse of honours Pouerty offends neither the body nor the minde but is the chaine which onely presseth either the one or the other If the mind complaine it is too blame for it belongs to him onely to knowe true or false If he say that riches are good and pouerty euill the senses will giue him the lye thereto for they complaine not at least if they doe they doe it vniustly If our minde had made this proposition to wit That the oare or matter of gold resembles that of earth or that the difference proceedes not from the mixture of qualities and accidents wee must not appeale therein to our senses Or if the Eye would contradict this proposition because the colour of earth differs from that of gold hee should not bee receiued or beleeued as Iudge If our feeling would adde in his own behalfe that hee findes the one hard the other soft the one smooth and the other harsh and impollished yet it were false and it may be shewed them that it belongs onely to them to iudge of good or euill and not of true or false Wee must not then by the same reason tearme that good or euill but which onely the Senses will so please to doe or as true or false that which it shall please the minde to ordaine So then there is nothing which will beare the name and quality of paine but the contrary obiect to the inclination of our feeling thereof as long as it is present with him and
cannot see Reason for Passion nor permanent Felicitie for transitory Delights and Pleasures And therefore that the World or rather the Courts of Kings and Princes which is the pride and glory thereof very often vseth vs not as a Lady of Honour but as a deboshed Strumpet or Courtisan who many times strangleth vs when shee makes greatest shew to embrace and kisse vs and the which in that regard and consideration I may pertinently and properly parallell to the Panther whose skinne is faire but his breath infectious Therefore out of the zeale of my best prayers and the candour and integrity of my best seruice and wishes eternally desiring and wishing that your Lordships prosperities and Honours may bee as infinite as your Vertues and Merits and as immortall as you are mortall I hope and implore that your Honour will please to pardon this my presumption for proffering vp this poore Epistle to your rich consideration and for being so ambitious to make this vnworthy translation of mine soare so high as to your Honourable protection and patronage in affixing and placing your Noble name thereto as a Stately Porch or Front to this rich and stately Temple of Vertue Not but that I perfectly know that your Honour is plentifully and aboundantly furnished with great variety of sweet preseruatiues and sound and salubrious Antidotes both against your owne humane passions as also against the frownes and flatteries of the world But yet I could giue no satisfaction to my selfe before I had giuen this Booke the desired though not deserued honour to kisse your Lordships hands For the Transplantation thereof being mine my Duty and Seruice prompted mee that I must needes direct and consecrate it to your Honour as well by the right of a iust propriety as by the equity of a commanding obligation and therefore of a necessary consequence Againe your Honour louing Vertue and cherishing Philosophie so tenderly and deerely in your selfe I thought that others would be the sooner induced and drawne thereto by the powerfull influence of your Example and therefore that the Dignity and Lustre of your name would serue as a sure pasport to make this Booke passe current with the different affections pallates and censures of his Readers whom now it goes foorth to meete with In which regard I hold it more presumption in me toward your Honour then neglect towards them to make this your Epistle serue likewise for them as being equally resolued neither to court their fauours nor to feare their reprehensions And heere before I shut vp this my Epistle I beseech your Honour to bee pleased farther to vnderstand that in this Translation I haue sometimes borrowed from the letter to giue to the sense by adding voluptuousnesse to pleasure shewe to apparance and affliction to euill or the like A liberty which I hold tolerable in a modest Interpreter As also I haue sometimes added griefe to paine although according to the rules and grounds of Logicke I know that the last hath reference to the body and the first to the Soule But I did it purposely to make it speake the more significant and fuller English because your Honour knowes so well as no man better that as other Languages so English hath her peculiar Idioms and proper phrases and Accents which may but yet in my poore opinion and Iudgement ought not to be omitted or neglected I will no farther vsurpe on your Lordships patience but will leaue this Booke to his fortune and my selfe to your wonted Honourable fauour So wishing all encrease of Earthly happinesse and heauenly fefelicity to your Honour to your Honourable and most vertuous Countesse and to those sweet and Noble young Plants your Children I will liue and dye in the resolution euer to be found Your Honours humblest Seruant IOHN REYNOLDS A TABLE OF THE Discourses and Sections which are contained in this Booke The first Discourse Of Vanitie Section I. MAn diuerteth his eyâ—s from his condition not to know the deformity thereof and abandoneth them to follow his owne vaine imaginations pag. 1 Section II. The wisedome of man cannot free it selfe from Vanitie so naturall she is to it pag. 17 The second Discourse Of the Senses Section I. THe Soule and the Body are vnited together 〈…〉 strong â—â—inke that as the 〈…〉 by the meanes of the Soule so the Soule cannot moue towards externall things nor know them but by the meanes of the senses pag. 27 Section II. The different operation of the Senses concludes not that there are fiue no more then the different effects of the rayes of the Sunne that there are many Sunnes 32 Section III. Nature being icalous of secrets permits not the Senses to discouer the Essences of things nor that they can conuey any thing to our vnderstanding that is not changed and corrupted by them in the Passage 37 Section IV. Science or Knowledge is the marke and seale of the Diuinity but that which resides among vs here in Earth is nothing else but abuse trumpery and vanitie pag. 44 Section V. Man hauing some knowledge of himselfe although it be imperfect as also of those whom he frequents hee contemnes their Learning and esteemes none but that which is growne in forraigne Countries or which hee receiues from an vnknowne hand 68 The third Discourse Of Opinion Section I. TO cut off the Liberty of Iudgement is to bereaue the Sunne of her light and to depriue man of his fairest ornament pa. 79 Section II. All things wonderfully encrease and fortifie themselues through Opinion 88 Section III. Opinion very ill requiâ—es the greatnesse to hold her still in shew and esteeme and to giue all the world right to controle her actions 94 Section IV. The common people haue no more certaine nor cleare seeing guide then Opinion 99 Section V. Opinion as an ingenious Painter giues those things which enuiron vs such face figure as it pleaseth 102 Section VI. Opinion leaues nothing entire but its corruption and pardoneth not Vertue her selfe 107 The fourth Discourse Of Passions Section I. STormes arise not so many surges on the Sea as Passions engender tempests in the hearts of men 114 Section II. We may say of Loue that which the Romanes said of an Emperour that they knew not whether they receiued more good or euill of him 122 Section III. Ambition hath no mediocrity and feares not his burning if the fire of heauen or the thunder-bolt of Iupiter furnish him the first sparkles pa. 133. Section IV. Couetousnesse is only iust in that it rigorously punisheth those whom it mastereth and commandeth 141 Section V. Fortune hath not a more charming Lure or bayte then our owne hope 199 Section VI. Feare casts her selfe into the future time as into a darke and obscure place thereby with a small cause or subiect to giue vs the greater wonder and astonishment 156 Section VII Of all Passions there is no greater Enemie of Reason nor lesse capable of Councell then Choler 177 Section VIII Passions haue so
irregularity but a degree of folly Leâ— vs seeke the confirmation of my speech in thâ— Schoole of the Philosophers Plato beleeued noâ— that a solide and sound Vnderstanding ought or should knocke at the gate of Poesie because the Poet saith he sitting on the chaire of the Muses furiously powres forth all which comes into his minde without tasting or digesting it It escaped from Homers tongue That it is gooâ— sometimes to be a foole Cato affirmes that thâ— best wits are those which haue most variety But Aristotle makes it cleare that a Wit which mounts it selfe into the supreamest degree of excellencie and rarity is indebted to his irregularity which issueth forth from his seat of Wisedome and is therefore of the iurisdiction of folly as if the soule had no surer signe of her perfect health then sicknesse It is a misfortune to owe his Wisedome to folly his glory to contempt and his reformation to Vice To sprinckle on vs Oracles and Prophesies according to the diuine Philosopher the soule must abandon her vsuall custome and pace and be surprised and forced by some heauenly raptures and rauishment thereby to steale as Prometheus did fire from heauen the secrets of the Diuinity That if hee whom antiquity beleeued to merrit the name of Wise aboue all other men hath refused it as vnworthy although Humane Nature enforced it selfe to produce him as a bright Sunne among the shining wits of his age by what right and iurisdiction must we attribute it to him Shall wee be Iudges of that whereof wee are incapable and shall our ignorance haue this reputation aboue his knowledge to be beleeued more true therein We are prodigall of that which we haue not and thinke to iudge more truly then he of those colours which we haue neuer seene and whereof himselfe alone hath had some knowledge though imperfect Is it not true that Socrates had more knowledge of his wisedome and of himselfe then all those vulgar people who with confused voyces and ill assured words would be wiser then him in this Art and Science of wisedom Socrates had too much freenesse in his soule to vse any counterfeiting disguise that if hee would attribute to his modesty the contempt which hee made of himselfe his wisedome and condition I will esteeme him guilty of no lesse vanity because there is no lesse errour and vice to conceale and couer the truth one way then another Let vs therefore stay at his free confession rather then to our owne rash iudgements and yet notwithstanding wee shall giue him no lesse praise and glory then antiquity hath done But let vs receiue this contentment that it be done in our sight and to our knowledge and that hee drawe vp Art and Science from the bottome of his ignorance and his greatest and iustest glory with so much reason and iustice to haue despised and contemned himselfe And from thence let vs deriue this consequence or Corollary That the power of man goes no farther then this point to cause to issue and streame foorth some riuolets of cleare water from the bottome of a deepe and dirty Well Hee still sauours of slime and dirt and if hee haue strength enough to dissemble it to our sences hee hath not sufficient art to disguise it to the truth Hee deemes himselfe powerfull through the vse and frequecie of his owne opinions He resounds aloude the wealth and treasure of his imagination and hath reason to prise and value them at so high a rate because all his riches is but a dreame his felicities but in outward shewe and appearance his prerogatiues but in discourse and hee himselfe is nothing else but vanity and lyes Chiron who refused the immortality which was offered him by the Gods had learnt in the Schoole of Nature the esteeme which he should make of so miserable and wretched a condition wherein there is nothing immortall but vexation and labour nor mortall but contentment Wee liue in sorrowes and afflictions or rather they liue by and in vs and for the defect of true causes we adde phantasticall bodies thereunto to afflict vs. And if we are reduced to this point to haue nothing without to paine vs wee yet make our selues enemies of our selues as if our peace and rest were but in contradiction and our tranquillity in perpetuall apprehension and feare But let vs proceede to examine the other springs and lockes of his nature thereby to discouer them to see whether wee shall finde more or lesse Vanity in him although notwithstanding we purposely conceale the greatest part thereof For if all were discouered it were to be feared that it being but Vanity it would all proue but winde which would carie away with it the subiect whereon wee are to entreate The end of the first Discourse The second Discourse Of the Sences SECTION I. The soule and the body are vnited together by so strong a linke that as the body cannot moue but by the meanes of the soule so the soule cannot moue towards externall things nor know them but by meanes of the sences RIuers doe not sufficiently discouer the nature of their head Springs and mens actions yeeld not knowledge enough of their Originall their perpetuall motion bereaues from our eyes through its violence the meanes how to know them and from our thoughts the meanes how to iudge of them It is the flight of a bird which leaues no trace in the ayre behinde him we must therefore follow him as he goes to know what hee is what is the principall marke whereby hee differeth from other creatures what are his priuiledges faculties and meanes whereby he receiues knowledge the ayde and assistance whereof besides the perpetuall trouble wherein it entertaines him fills him full of vaine glory and presumption In so doing wee shall see Reason in her castle how she establisheth her selfe with power and authority what is her beginning her progresse and her end how she findes not in vs any free common and naturall entrance but by the sences which are as the Sentinels of the soule disposed without to aduertise her of all that passeth and to furnish the principles and matter to establish this proud building wherein she afterwards sits as in her Throne of maiestie which I terme Science or the knowledge of things For if all things that are knowne may bee knowne onely according to the faculty of the knower wee must acknowledge that wee are solely bound to them for this knowledge because it doth necessarily begin and likewise end in them For by the meanes of the sences Imagination Memory and Opinion is framed and formed and from these imaginations being once placed in quietnesse and of memory and opinion reduced in order by iudgement is deriued the knowledge of things To passe on and proceede with more facility to this knowledge we say that the Sence is a faculty ioyned in a certaine proportion and harmony with its proper obiect as the Sight to colours Hearing to sounds Smelling to sents
that which cannot offend vs despight our selues Nature hath caused vs to be all borne equally rich esteemes so little of the goods she giues vs which we tearme riches as of our passions and the feare to lose them Seneca sayes that the Gods were more propitious and fauourable when they were but of earth then since when they were made of Gold or Siluer meaning thereby that the rest and tranquillity of the mind was more frequently found in the life of our fore-fathers who sought no other riches then the fruites of their labours then it hath done since when men being curious to open the bosome and rip vp the bowells of the earth haue therein found Mines of Gold and Siluer which shee hath dispersed and sowen among vs as seed of discord and diuision The meanest estate and condition and those steps which are neerest the earth are still the firmest and surest as the highest are the most dangerous And if Pouertie bee any way harsh or distastfull it is onely because she can throw vs into the armes of Hunger Thirst Heate Cold or other discommodities So in Pouertie it is not she which is to be feared but rather Griefe and Paine whereof we will hereafter speake in its proper place But some one will say who is he that apprehends and feares not Death There is no pouerty so poore which findes not wherewith to liue The body is easily accustomed and hardned to endure Heate or Cold but what remedy is there against Death who with his sharpe sithe cuts and reapes away so many pleasures yea the very threed of our life which can neuer be regained for although old men approach Death in despight of themselues and that their distast of worldly pleasures the forerunner thereof should yet giue them resolution to aduance boldly neuerthelesse they retire backe they tremble at the ghastly sight and shadow of Death yea they are affraide sincke downe in their beds and wrap themselues vp in their couerlets and to vse but one word they dye euery moment at the onely feare and thought of Death And I who am in the Spring-time of my age cherished of the Muses and beloued of Fortune in the very hight of all pleasures and voluptuousnesse shall not I yet feare Death So many Griefes and Sorrowes so many conuulsions and gnashing of our teeth are they not to be apprehended and feared can the linkes of that marriage of the Body and Soule be dissolued and broken but by some violent effect and power those who are insensible feare their dissolution Flowers and Trees seeme to mourne at the edge of the Knife and shall not then our sense and feeling bee sensible thereof yea and remarke and see it in our feare I answere It is true that of all things which Nature representeth vnto vs most terrible there is nothing which shee hath depainted in such fearefull colours as the figure and image of Death Euery thing tendes to the conseruaâ—ion of its being and generously oppose and fight against those who seeke to destroy it But the feare which wee entermixe with it is not of the match oâ— party but is onely of our owne proper beliefe and inuention Paine which seemes to be the iustest cause to make vs apprehend it is excluded and hath nothing to doe with it because the seperation of the soule and body is done in so sodaine a moment and instanâ— that our Vnderstanding hardly perceiuing it it iâ— very difficult for our sense to doe it Those gastly lookes which deuance it or the rewâ—rd of good or euill which followes it are no appurtenances â—or dependancies of this instant or moment But I will say more For as there is no time in this instant so likewise there is no paine because the senses cannot operate or agitate according to the opinion of Philosophers but with some certaine Interim of time and which is more that those last panges are passed away without any sense or feeling thereof And contrariwise if in this seperation the paine should be either in the body or soule or both First the body feeles it not because there is nothing but the senses which can perceiue it who being in disorder and confusion by the disturbance of the vitall spirits which they oppresse and restraine their disposition is thereby vitiated The function of the senses being interrupted they cease to operate and therefore of feeling the effect of paine but more especially when the spirits abandon them and retire and withdrawe themselues from the heart The which wee perceiue and see in those who fall in a swoone whose eyes remaine yet open without seeing and without operation which happeneth and comes to passe because the spirits which should make the wheeles of the sight to moue and operate haue abandoned their places and functions The Soule of her selfe cannot remedy it no more then a Fountainer can cause his water-workes to play when there is no water the which by reason thereof is then meerely out of his power And as the eye by the defect hereof performes not her function and without perceiuing thereof ceaseth to operate so all the other senses by the same rule and reason doe faile vs. When our Soule will take her last farewell of our body shee flyes to the regions of the Liuer and Heart as to her publique places all the spirits being dispierced and bending here and there in the body to take her last fare-well of them which retire without that the parts or members farther off doe feele any paine of this seperation but because henceforth they can no more feele it for that they carie away with them the heat and strength of feeling If therefore there be any paine it must be in the noble parts who profer their last farewell and thankes to the Soule for the care labour and paine which shee hath had to giue them life and motion The Husband cannot lâ—aue or goe from his Wife without a great sense and feeling of sorrowe for his sighes griefes and teares testifie how bitter and displeasing this seperation is to him Can therefore this seperation of the soule from the body bee performed with lesse griefe and paine Some will say that the most remote parts and members shall be insensible thereof and endure and suffer nothing in this reluctation and conflict which is onely because they haue giuen this charge and conferred this commission to the noble parts to performe it As in the seperation of one whom we deerely affect and loue all the whole body which suffereth in this farewell to make his griefe and sorrowes the more apparent commits the charge thereof to the eyes by their teares and to his breast by her sighes to expresse his sense and feeling thereof I answere that there is no paine because the spirits who withdrawe themselues by the defects and failing of others in these interiour parts are either in good and perfect order and their function is common and therefore without paine or else
in confusion and then the function and organes of the spirits are changed and consequently their effect which is the sense and feeling thereof Which is seene by those who fall into a trance or swooning They feele nothing lesse then paine in those parts which with farre more reason should betide them because the force and power of the spirits dispierced throwe all the body is in one instant assembled and gathered together in this place whereas contrariwise Death hapneth and comes to vs by the extinguishing of the spirits who by their extreame weakenesse cannot furnish power enough to moue the wheeles and organes of our feeling and as without paine they haue abandoned the remotest parts and members they faile in them without any perceiuing thereof The body depriued of Knowledge and therefore ignorant of his losses supports it without any paine or griefe So that if there be any paine or bitternesse in this seperation it should be in the soule who touched with the remembrance of fore-past pleasures which she hath enioyed and tasted in her commerce and traffique with the body shee cannot depart or estrange her selfe without paine and lamentation But I affirme and say that paine hath no power but ore the Body and that the Soule being wholly simple pure and spirituall is exempt of its iurisdiction and it hath no hold or power ouer her That if the knowledge which she hath bee capable to giue him any sense or feeling of paine it should bee for his good But there is nothing which the Soule embraceth with more passion nor desireth so eagerly then her rest and tranquillity I meane the enioyance and possession of her obiect for then chiefely when she is detained in the prison of the body she findes nothing pleasing in this strange Countrie which can content her appetite Iudge then if she gâ—ieue to depart and dislodge from the body and whether a Prisoner detained by the Turkes when we take off the chaines from his hands and feete pay his Ransome to reconduct him into his natiue country so restore him to the free possession of his goods and liberty haue any great cause to afflict himselfe for this separation I confesse you will answere me that I no more feare Death for its paine sith there is none so sharpe which we will not willingly endure and suffer and which is not entermixed with some sweetnesse if we flaâ—ter our selues with the hope of a remedy But who is he who ought not to apprehend the losse of goods which are common to the one and the other to the minde and the body which being diuided and separated their sweet enioyance can no more be recouered I say that if this losse be a griefe or euill this euill ought to concurre and meet either in the enioying thereof or then when you possesse and enioy it no longer As for the present should you not iniustly complaine because you enioy it quietly and that you attribute the good which they bring vs to the possessing of them But it is no euill no more then when you enioy them not because the euill is the feeling which we haue of a thing that afflicts vs but Death depriues vs of all sense and feeling and therefore of this paine and affliction that if you afflict your selfe because death depriues you of the remembrance thereof by the same reason euery night before you sleepe you ought to bewaile and lament it and to take your farewell because you goe to lose the memory thereof Those who haue iudged most sollidly and pertinently of Death and who haue most curiously depainted it at Nature and Life haue compared it to sleepe But if we will aske the opinion of Trophonius and Agamedes they will teach vs what is the most Soueraigne of our Riches and contents because after they had built and consecrated a stately Temple to the honour of Apollo they besought him in requitall that he would eternally grant them the best thing and it was answered them by the Oracle that their demand should be satisfied within three dayes but before the expiration thereof they both died He who is in the worst estate and condition beginnes to hope when he hath no more to feare whereof he is not presently afflicted Man being then so miserable in his life hath he not reason to aime and aspire to some better thing To feare Death saith Socrates is the part of a Wise man because all the World ignores it in not knowing whether it be our good or our euill But what should we not feare if we feare that which cowardise her selfe hath sought for her retraite and shelter and for the speediest and most soueraigne remedy of all afflictions and miseries The Egyptians had still in their Bankets the Image of Death neuerthelesse it was not feare who had the charge to represent them this picture but it was Constancy and Vertue who had that commission and who would not permit that in the middest of their Delights and Ioyes they should be interrupted by any vnexpected accident But if Death then befell them that he should be of their company that the ceremony might not be troubled in regard they kept him his place and dish and briefely that the ioy of the company mought not be disturbed for because they neither knew the certaine place or time where they should attend Death they therefore attended him in all times and places Aristotle tells vs that there is no feare but of doubtfull things it is then in vaine for vs to apprehend it or that our feare prepares him such base and cowardly courages in regard there is nothing more ceâ—taine then Death How many are there found who suruiue their glory and whose languishing life hath not serued but for a Tombe to bury their reputation It was said by a Philosopher that the sweete pleasures of life was but a slauery if the libertie to die were to be said so why then should we feare that which the wisest of the World held the surest harbour and sanctuary of our tranquillity It now rests that we fight against the feare of paine which serues but to afflict vs with a present griefe of that which it may be will nâ—uer befall vs or at least farre otherwise then we feare The Painter Parhasius exposed his Slaues to the Racke thereby the more naturally to represent the feigned tortures of Prometheus We are Slaues to feare who of an imaginary euill delights to cast on vs the gall and bitternesse of a thousand true vexations and afflictions For how often haue we shaked and trembled with feare at those things which haue produced vs no greater damage then the bare apprehension thereof Haue we euer feared or expected any thing with extreame impatiency but that we haue still found it altered and changed with the beliefe and hope thereof Hath not paine many sharpe points and throes of it selfe without it be any way needfull for our feare to edge or sharpen them As farre distant
they hinder their regular function There is no point of wisedome so pure which can hinder this trouble or secure it selfe from it because it cannot resist the power of sleepe But perfect reason subsisteth nor but by this well-gouerned function of the spirits for that ceasing shee also ceaseth But O yee Stoickes what will be your felicity in torments If your reason forsake you and play false company with you what will then become of this Vertue which no longer knowes her selfe is this it which she had promised you Whiles the Enemie sackes you and Fortune teares and dragges you by the haire shee will abandon you at neede and dares not shewe her selfe but when your Enemies are retired and vanished And yet then shee returnes so weake and trembling that it seemes shee hath felt the very same blowes which our body hath What shall we say of those from whom shee hauing beene but once absent shee neuer had the assurance to returne againe Lucretius a great Poet and Philosopher by a loue potion too sharpe for the palate of Vertue gaue him occasion to dislodge and to abandon the place to folly Faire Felicity how your fauours are difficult to purchase and easie to lose Will you so permit that leuity command and dispose you to the preiudice of that fortitude and constancie whereof you make profession you say that you are a daughter of Heauen and can you therefore suffer the affront and disgrace of this daughter of Earth I meane Fortune that she dragge you Captiue and proudly triumph of your spoyles At least if this Stoicall Vertue could ingender a degree of leaprosie in our sense and feeling shee hereby might make head and oppose against Fortune but shee is so farre from it as she sharpens it and makes it more sensible to the Arrowes that she shoots at vs And to shewe more clearely and apparantly how this poyson of paine and griefe runnes into the superiour party which wee tearme reasonable and so infects it with its contagion wee must knowe that the contrary qualities which concurre and meete in the compound would neuer subsist together if they were not attoned and agreed by a third party who participating both of the one and the other doth thereby entertaine them and appease their enmity and contention And Nature could neuer haue sowed or tyed to man two such contrary peeces without the ayde and assistance of a third which are the purest and most subtillest spirits of the bloud which hold fast and tye themselues to the abundance and affluence thereof by the grossest part which is in them and to the soule by that which is purest in it and which holds fast and stayes in this prison of the body So that prouided that this third be not offended Man still maintaines himselfe He can liue without reason as the Sunne can doe towards vs and in our Hemispheare without enlightning vs with his rayes and beames whiles hee is eclipsed with so blacke and thicke a cloude that it cannot pierce forth to our eyes because reason is as the eye of the soule which shines not forth openly and brightly to vs if it meete with any obstacle or interposition If the legges or armes of a man be wounded or cut off he may yet support himselfe and liue But when this third is excessiuely endomaged and that hee hath forsaken the match then the body being too corpulent and massiue hauing no more hold-fast of the soule is constrained to forsake and abandon her This third therefore serues as an Interpreter both to the one and the other Hee giues the body to vnderstand the will of the soule and to the Soule the appetites and desires of the senses All that generally befalls man is diuided by this third which sends to the one and the other their part and portion If paine afflict the body it spreads and runnes through all the spirits to the very soule as by a sulphurous match lighted at both ends and at the same instant sets fire euery where as well in the superiour as the inferiour part where she offends and outrageth both the senses and reason Thus paine hauing then past and entered into reason it there troubleth the repose and changeth the felicity of the Stoick So that the voyce of that Philosopher who cryed out O Paine I will not say that thou art sharpe or euill is not a sufficient testimony of his victory ouer it It is a Souldier which hee hath taken in the middest of the conflict and combat but yet hee dragges our Philosopher as his prisoner after him A Captiue who spets iniuries in her Masters face is yet no lesse his Slaue Hee who willingly obeyes not is more rigorously handled and the Wise man who armes himselfe against a violent paine or griefe hath not so cheape a bargaine as our selues because it is still ill done of vs to incense an enemie who hath in his hands the power and meanes to offend vs. To put this Constancie as she is depainted by them into a mans hands to oppose and fight against this strong Enemie it is to put Hercules his Club into the hands of a Pigmee The Weapons and Armour wherewith they loade our weake shoulders doe beat vs down and kill vs with their weight It belongs to none but to Socrates to weare this Corslet or to manage or play with the weapons of Achilles and to accustome our selues to it we must vigorously assayle and assault Fortune neuer to make truce with her to prouoke and dare her to the Combat with a firme footing and resolution with the sweat on our front to sup dust into our mouth to make vs drunke with her wounds by little and little to fortifie our stomack as another Pill of Methridatum against the poyson of vnlooked for accidents which may corrupt our health I meane the peace and tranquillity of our felicity SECTION VI. Mans life is a harmonie composed of so many different tones that it is very difficult for Vertue to hold and keepe them still in tune I Finde that the Poets doe exceedingly sing and paint forth the praises and beauty of Venus That commonly they lend Arrowes to this young Cupid which are sharper then those he caries about him in his quiuer and that their true naturall beauty is nothing in comparison of those they borrow from this strange painting and false decoration But it seemes to mee that Philosophers doe no lesse by their wisedome for she haâ—h not so much beauty or excellencie naked as by those ornaments and attires wherewith the Stoikes embellish and adorne her and I know not if the Gods enuie not the condition of men for the price of the like recompence This Vertue as it is painted out by Seneca haâ—h such enchanted lures and graces that if this Image could heat it selfe in our breast and receiue life in our armes by the fauour of Minerua as heretofore the Statue of Pigmalion did by the 〈◊〉 of Venus I beleeue that the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hic vera felicitas THE IVDGMENT OF Humane Actions A most Learned Excellent Treatise of Morrall Philosophie which fights agaynst Vanytie Conduceth to the fyndinge out of true and perfect Felicytie Written in French by Monsieur Leonard Marrande And Englished by Iohn Reynolds LONDON Imprinted by A. Mathewes for Nicholas Bourne at the Royall Exchange 1629 I Cecill sculp TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND truly Noble EDWARD Earle of DORSET Lord Lieutenant of his Majesties Counties of Sussex and Middlesex Lord Chamberlaine to the Queene One of the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Priuie Councell and Knight of the most Illustrious Order of the Garter His Singular good Lord and Master RIGHT HONOVRABLE EIther by Earthly accident or Heauenly prouidence meeting with this late imprinted French Treatise of The Iudgement of Humane Actions written by Monsieur Marande a name that I more honour then know and diuing into the perusall thereof I found it for matter so solide and for phrase so curious a Master-peece of Morall Philosophie that I sawe my selfe engaged yea and in a manner bound to deuest it from its French garbe and to sute it in our English attire and habite as desirous that England as well as France should participate of that benefit and Felicitie But as I was entering into this taske and casting my selfe vpon the resolution of this attempt I was instantly met and assayled by an obstacle of no small importance For considering that France hath now made and declared her selfe Englands enemie and consâ—quently giuen vs no iust cause or reasons to loue French men but many to hate them I therefore in honour to my Prince and Country to whose prosperity and seruice my best blood and life shall euer bee prostrated at first began to reiect this Booke because written by a French man and so to looke on the translation thereof rather with an eye of contempt then of affection But at last recollecting my thoughts and considering that Peace is the gift and blessing of God and Charâ—ty the true marke of a Christian I therefore from my heart and soule wishing and desiring a safe honorable and perdurable peace betweene these two mighty neighbour Sister Kingdomâ—s in particular and to all Christians and the whole Christian world in general And also well knowing that Learning is vniuersally to be cherished and vertue honoured in all persons times and places of the whole world without exception or distinction then these premiâ—es considered this my last consideration preuailed and vanquished my first and so I re-assumed my former designe and resolution to finish it although in regard of the deepe matter and the knottie and elegant stile thereof I ingeniously confesse that many Gentlemen both of England and Scotland had beene farre more capable for the discharge and performance thereof then my selfe Hauing thus made my selfe an English Eccho to this French Author and now in these times of Warre taken this Booke as a rich French prise and landed him on our English shores Where should this Impe of my labour looke but on your Ho on whom my hopes heart haue euer looked or to whom else should it flye for harbour and shelter but onely to your Lordship who in all the stormes and tempests of these my weather beaten fortunes haue so graciously and generously serued me both for shelter and harbour when the immerited malice of some and the vndeserued ingratitude of others haue denied it me The which yet I speake and remember more out of sensibility to my selfe â—hen any way out of passion much lesse of Enuie to them as resting contented with this resolution to keepe the griefe thereof to my selfe to leaue the shame to them and to giue the thankes and glory to your Honour As this Booke of Marande is curious so he made his Dedication thereof wherefore led by the fame and lustre of his example I could doe no lesse then immitate him herein for as he directed it to the Cardinall of Richelieu So your Lordships Merits and my dutie enforce me to inscribe it to your Honour who are as much the Cardinalls equall in Vertues as by many degrees his superiour in bloud and extraction And although I well know that shall rather wrong mine Author then right my selfe to erect or proffer any Paâ—â—gerike to his Merits and Iudgement on this his Booke because of it selfe iâ— sufficiently peâ—formes and acts that part Yet when your Lordshipâ— leasure and pleasure shall borow so much time from your great and weighty â—ffâ—ires of the State to giue it to the perusâ—ll and contemplation of this his Booke I doubt not but you will then see and acknowledge that Marande herein as another Cornelius Agrippa learnedly fights against the Vanitie of Humane Sciences and as a second Montaigne iudiciously contests against the poyson of our hearts I meane against our intemperate and therefore our pernicious Passions For in this worke of his as in a rich Treasurie and Sacrary of Nature He with a zeale and iudgement euery way worthy of himselfe laughes at the Vanitie of all Humane Artes and Actions as also generally at all the presumptuous and profane professors thereof and by reasons as cleare as the Sunne passeth his iudgement on them prouing GOD to bee the sole Author and Giuer of Wisdome and that GOD and none but GOD ought to bee the onely obiect of our desires and affections Here hee hath deuested and stript our passions naked and curiously delineated and depointed them to vs in their true colours and naturall deformity Heere he hath taught vs to beleeue and our thoughts and resolutions to know that exorbitant Ambition prooues most commonly the bane of our hearts the poyson of our mindes and the Arch-Enemie and Traytor to our owne fortunes and fâ—licitie Here hee hath curiously arraigned and anatomized the power and functions of the Senses and shewed vs how violently and maliciously they euery moment conspire to corrupt our bodies and to betray our soules to sinne and voluptuousnesse Here he hath brought home to our Vnderstanding and Iudgement what power our soules haue ouer our bodies and God ouer our soules and that our bodies can expect no true tranquillity or felicity here on Earth except our soules doe first fetch it from Heauen and deriue it from God And here hee hath crowned Reason to be the Queene of our soules and adopted Vertue to bee no lesse then a Princesse and Daughter of Heauen and taught vs how tenderly and religiously we ought to loue either and honour both of them sith thereby they will then infallibly prooue the two spirituall guides to conduct vs to true happinesse in this life and consequently to bring vs to true felicity and glory in that to come Which considered As also that such is the vniuersall iniquity of our times the generall deprauation and corruption of our liues and manners that through the darke cloudes of our humane Vanitie and Ambition we many times
Tasting to sauours and Feeling to colde heate and other naturall qualities whereof the subiects or causes consists and this by the meanes of the ayre which receiues retaines and beares as a Mediator these sorts of the one to the other subiect These fiue messengers carie to the interiour powers endewed with knowledge all that we can comprehend or desire And they all thrust forward to common sence as to theiâ— centre where they faithfully report the images of those things according as they haue gathered and collected them which after iudgeth and discerneth thereof Their particular power is confined and limited within the bounds of the obiect which is prescrib'd them without whose extent they neuer aduance For the eyes neither iudge nor know any thing but colours nor the eares but onely those tones and sounds wherewith they are strucken But common sence iudgeth of the one and the other seuerally neuer confounds them and is industriously carefull to present them to the imaginatiue who as an ingenious Painter receiues and gathereth the liuely formes which being cleansd of sensible conditions and particular qualities become vniuersall and are capable to be presented to the Vnderstanding being thus disroabd of their grosse apparell and guided by the light of the Intellect an agent which stands at the entry as a Torch to hinder either the order or confusion of images or formes which may meet and assaile one the other in the crowde and then presently presents them to the still and quiet Intellect who hauing opinioned vpon these formes that haue beene presented to him iudgeth which are profitable and which preiudiciall and then offers them afterwards to our Will together with his iudgement thereon Who as Mistresse of the Powers ordaines that they shall all embrace her party and so to follow that which pleaseth or else to eschew and avoid that which displeaseth him But to the ende that in the absence of objects the Vnderstanding may haue wherewith to imploy and entertaine himselfe hee commits to the guard and custody of Memory those formes which are shewed to him by his fancy to present them to him as often as it is needefull and although the subtilty and quicke actiuitie of these different motions are almost insensible wee must neuerthelesse thus dispose and order them although one onely motion doth in one and the same instant touch all these different strings which concurre to the sweet harmony of the thoughts and motions of a well-ordered minde thereby to enlighten with more familiarity the beginning progresse and ende of matters and how and in what manner materiall things are made spirituall thereby to haue more communication and commerce with our soule And yet notwithstanding it is not a necessarie consequence that this order bee so religiously obserued For I speake of free operations which are made in a sound Vnderstanding and not of those who permit themselues to be guided and gouerned by their owne opinions and who content themselues simply to follow the great high way as the more frequented and beaten without enquiring where they goe nor why they follow this sort of life because their affection and fancy which hath receiued the formes which Sense presented to them with some particular recommendation and fauour presented them likewise as soone to the sensuall appetite vnder the forme of good or euill who without communicating it to his superiour Iudges commands as a Lieutenant generall ouer the moovable powers who are subiect to him which are dispersed in the Muscles Arteryes and other parts of the body that they obey him either to approach or retyre to flye or follow and to performe such other motions as is requisit and proper to the impression that is giuen them by this sensuall appetite SECTION II. The different operation of the Senses concludes not that there are fiue no more then the different effects of the rayes of the Sunne that there are many Sunnes IT seemes to me with some probability and apparance that the number and multitude of the Senses might bee reduced to that of Feeling for as the most delicate parts of the body feele cold or heate good or euill more sensibly and liuely then the grosser so Man touched with the same obiect seemes to be diversly touched because his body in her tenderest parts receiues a feeling so delicate and subtile that it loseth the name of feeling and then we giue it another according to our fancy and opinion although in effect that proceeds from the disposition or delicatenesse of the sensible part the which the more it is small tender and subtile the more the feeling becomes delicate and subtile And indeede the same obiect which toucheth vs if it be generally ouer all the body that wee terme feeling or if hee meet with any part more liuely or animated as in the superiour part of man where nature hath lodged as in a heauen the Intelligences and the liuely formes and images of the Diuinity the same obiect I say which in all the body could meete with none but with grosse parts could not make that the feeling should produce the effects of all the other Senses according to the part where he met the which the more delicate it is the more this feeling doth subtilise in the end purifies it self so that it seemes to be absolutely some other thing and to haue no resemblance with that which the vulgar and popular voyce termes feeling For if the obiect touch our tast the sence and feeling is farre more subtill then when it toucheth our foote hand or any grosser part of the body And therefore we will terme it no more feeling but sauour or relish If it be present it selfe to the nose it subtilizeth it selfe the more If to the hearing againe more If to the sight it is with such a subtilty and purity that it seemes to be an opinion meerely erroneous to call that sense feeling because the obiect which strikes it toucheth it not hard enough or that it doth not hurt or offend so much so liuely in this part as in others If neuerthelesse they will behold the Sunne with open eyes this pricking burning paine which they feele in their eye will bee enough sharpe and sensible to draw this confession from their tongue For were it so that the obiect touched not our eye but that this faculty of seeing depended wholly of him he would imagine all things of one and the same colour If the feeling he receiues by the degrees of the obiect which are conuayed to him by the meanes and assistance of the ayre made him not to obserue the difference as if he alwayes looke through a greene or red glasse all that is presented to him appeares of the same colour That if this faculty were absolutely in vs that the thing touched vs not that the obiect had no right but of patience and reception and not of action or emission We should see all equally without being more interested of one obiect then of
I doe not wonder if the Epicuriens submit vs to the mercie of the senses with so much seuerity and tyrannie that they permit it to be more lawfull for vs to inuent all sorts of lyes and fictions then to accuse them of falshood Those Philosophers cannot chuse but establish excellent Arts and Sciences sith they are so religious in their principles and they well demonstrate by their Atomes the faith and sound beliefe which they want in their weake beginnings It is true that in the Spagerycall Art the more things are discharged from the grosse accidents and qualities which enuiron them the more they are made perfect and essentiall but it fares not with our Vnderstanding as with a Lymbecke because the labour of our minde doth in nothing touch the true being of the thing and the strongest stroake which hee can giue to apprehend it is this first communication of the Senses to the things which are neerest by their faculties relation harmony measure and true proportion which is betwixt them and their obiect by the interuention of Nature so as then when one of the Senses hath carried to Common Sense the figure of his obiect hee is so farre from being cleansed and purified by this Idea or that hee communcates more easily by the vertue of his being that he is much the further off it And as the sides of an Angle the more they are continued the more they are distant one from the other so the more those figures or Images are borne to the common sense and are purified to make them capable and worthy of our vnderstanding the more they estrange themselues from the obiect which they represent and consequently from his true being Our thoughts runne af-after obiects to embrace them but in vaine for they can ouertake nothing but shaddowes through the ayd and assistance of their weake imaginations It is a handfull of water which shee will retaine and hold and the more shee graspes fast her hand the swifter it runnes out But sith thoughts enioy nothing else of the thing then the Idâ—ea can we say that it is a subiect capable to containe him to possesse it yea in a being more certaine sure and purer then she is If wee say there is so small reason to measure a right line by a crooked one to know the true measure thereof and that a square cannot bee measured by an Orbe or circle although these lines and figures are of the same nature and differ not but accidentally is it possible that wee would so proudly measure and know the truth of things by so false an instrument and which hath so small resemblance to its true being It is to esteeme the shadowe aboue the light to giue more beliefe to dreames then watchings and more to prise and value apparance and shewe yea of not being then of the true being of the thing it selfe This faculty of sense which distills through all our body is descended from aboue and from our soule as the light of the Sunne which exposeth to our eyes the beauty but not the Essence of things that enuiron vs Sith Nature it selfe according to Plato is nothing else but abstruse and Enigmaticall Poesie as an ouer-vailed painting resplending with infinite variety of false lights thereby to giue vnto the apparence of our reasons and the weakenesse of our coniectures more cause to admire the sacred and powerfull hand of our diuine Painter God who in all the corners of the world and chiefely in man hath engrauen the Caracters and Images of his Diuinity SECTION IV. Science or knowledge is the marke and seale of the Diuinity but that which resides among vs here in Earth is nothing else but abuse trumperie and vanitie OVr Knowledge is but a Vanity his assurance hath no other foundation but doubt There is nothing more weake or fraile then his principles His beginnings are tender and childish we must leade them by the hand They had neede haue ayde and support from euery one of a firme and vndoubted beliefe for want of valable reasons If our faith did not maintaine them they could not subsist of themselues Also none will permit that they be examined or proued for the triall and quest will be of too dangerous a consequence But there can be no principles if the Diuinity haue not reuealed them and therefore there is no science or knowledge All contrary presupposition hath no lesse authority one then the other If reason make not the difference That which we will establish for reason it must needes be reason it selfe and not our owne opinion If it be lawfull for vs to enforme our selues of the Principles of Sciences yea of that which is held and maintained for the most certaine and true by the common consent of all Philosophers wee shall finde that by their false presuppositions they establish a knowledge of Truth For they will measure materiall things by immateriall although neuerthelesse they will haue the thing which measureth of the same nature with the thing measured As their numbers which are not measured but by numbers and their lines by lines But the point is the principle of their measure The point is nothing they haue therefore no point of a principle in their measure There is nothing so opposite and distant as being from not being How will they then by the not being of the point passe to the infallible and sure demonstration of the true Being of the body Can they giue any other assured foundation to the point the line and the superficies then their imagination Let them not therefore attempt to measure imaginary things sith they are of the same nature and that there is nothing more different then reall Being to imaginarie froÌ„ the line to the pearch and from the Angle to the Compasse Let the Surueyer of Lands make vse of his pearch to measure the earth but let not the Astrologer forme in his head or minde any imaginary pearches to measure heauen the distance of the planets or the extent of the Zodiacke Let our grosse sense be the test of true and false sith we haue none more sure It will ill become vs to play the wise men aboue our senses and vnderstanding Our wit can neither forme nor frame any thing beyond it which hath any foundation This is to vndertake too much They make vs confesse despight of our selues that they are the expert Masters therein and that we haue no right but in obedience not in counsaile If the Mathematicians will not that the point measure the line the line the superficies nor the superficies the body Why will they that this body framed in their imaginations by the weauing and connexion of the point the line and the superficies which is but imaginarie be capable to measure a body physicall and reall which admits nor knowes any point line or superficies It is to establish Principles with too much tyrannie not to giue leaue to examine them Sith the knowledge which results thereof
is a bird of the same nest and that he ought to enforme himselfe of all before he giue vs demonstrations for Articles of faith which haue no other foundation but doubt and incertainty For we most say with Epicure that all things are compounded of points sith it is the beginning middle and end of a line But the line is to the Superficies that which the point is to the line and the superficies to the body that which the line is to the superficies wherefore this point being in all and through all to the line must likewise be in all and throw all to to the body For withdrawing by the power of the imagination because this is solely the work of imagination all the points which may meet or can be imagined in the line there will then remaine no more line or that which remaines will haue no more points But she cannot be diuided but by the points therefore either the line shall bee nothing more when the points shall be taken away or she shall be indiuisible in her length because she is not deuisible but by the points which shall be no more May I not then conclude of the absurdity of their Demonstrations and Principles For the same that we haue done to the line by withdrawing of the points we may doe to the superficies by the substraction of lines and to the body by the substraction of the superficies and there will nothing remaine to vs but the point which they themselues can neither expresse nor define but by negation But can there be found any thing in the body of Nature which is nothing and neuerthelesse is euery where and composeth all and that from thence we may inferre that the Mathematician is nothing nor yet his Art and Science why then will we borrowe of imagination the principle of so reall and true a Being as the body which falls vnder our senses sith there is no conformity nor resemblance of the measure to the thing measured The Astrologers haue more reason to forme Epicicles to the Sunne and Moone and because they cannot attaine thereto they are constrained to lend a body and a forme to their inuentions If they cannot approach the Sunne they will approach the Sunne neere to them to forme him materiall springs and lockes to the end that they may manage him according to their owne pleasures and fashion and that he may not escape from them and as well they shall not be beleeued But what doth it seeme to them or doe they thinke that the diuine prouidence who ruleth and limiteth the motions of all things could doe nothing without them and that Heauen if it were not hung fast by her Poles and the Sunne and Moone linked and nayled fast to their Heauen that they would fall on our heads That the Planets could not moue because euery moment without rule order they met and contended and troubled themselues in their course and reuolution As if I say this diuine prouidence had not established so much but a fairer order aboue among these celestiall bodies where in outward shew apparence he is more pleased because hee delights in cleannesse and purity then hee hath done belowe here among the elements which take not the hand and place one of the other but euery one keepes himselfe in his proper place and station ordained to him Earth mounts not vp to the Region of fire nor the ayre throwes her selfe not downe into that of water but according to their vsuall custome commerce and the harmony which Nature hath contracted betweene them as is seene in the mixture of compounds which of their discordant accords and agreements yeeld so sweet a Harmony and Diapazon But sith this wise Mother of the world is so carefull to conserue peace among beasts who deuoure not one the other yea likewise among corruptible bodies although age hauing destroyed them she can easily make propriate others of the same clay of the same matter which shee moulds and workes continually in her hands by a farre stronger consideration shee hath reason to entertaine and maintaine a perfect peace rule order and measure among those caelestiall bodies and that it were not in her power to establish if they were entermixed and confused in the order which was prescribed to them from their beginning by him who neuer had nor shall haue end or beginning They can and are well conseru'd without them and without their Epicicles and hee among them who can erect his eyes in the contemplation of this great body in comparison of the earth of that which wee possesse and enioy will assuredly iudge that Nature vseth vs as children because it giues vs nothing but trifles of small or no value yea which are not worth the losing in regard of those which we want and enioy noâ— I beleeue that the Epicicle which they giue to the Moone differs not much from that of their wit and I thinke I wrong them not in the comparison A heauenly body doth at least deserue as noble a scituation as a feeble and earthly imagination They conduct and gouerne themselues very well without vs and I would to God we could doe it so well without them and although their influence whereof man cannot know the cause and motion if he ascend not to the head spring and fountaine distribute vs Happinesse or Misfortune good or euill yet neuerthelesse we will giue them but a younger Childes portion and will make them trot retire and aduance according to our pleasures but our Vanitie cannot be concealed or kept from them they retaine recorde thereof so as whosoeuer can breake open and discouer those seales he shall presently and palpably behold things past present and to come and as the flood of all mortall matters runnes incessantly with one and the same impetuositie Our designes are faire and generous but their execution ridiculous our mountaines of Pride and Vanity produce and propagate vs nothing but Mice and are more to bee lamented and pittied in the weakenesse of our wits then those small Pigmees for the weakenesse of their bodies in their enterprise vpon Hercules If those Giants which would heretofore assault and scale Heauen yea the Throne of the Gods and pull the Thunder out of Iupiters hands had finished â—hâ—ir intended enterprise they would haue 〈◊〉 vs of what matter the Sunne was 〈◊〉 how he is captiue bound and tied to 〈◊〉 what is his Epicycle Apogee and other 〈◊〉 misteries functions if their presumption and rashnesse were not at the very instant 〈◊〉 vnder the very weight and burthen of 〈◊〉 â—â—mour and weapons to shew that the 〈◊〉 Presumption and Vanitie of our Reasons brings vs nothing else but shame and confusion The principles of these Sciences are weake shaking and trembling it is a labour to support and affirme them but when they are avered and that their principles and demands are granted then they afterwards triumph in their demonstrations They approoue a thousand faire
them more curiously and attentiuely then we would doe a Statue of Gold or Siluer which we our selues haue seene made although it were farre more inriched by the art and labour of an excellent workeman and this onely because we haue seene a deformed massie piece thereof whereon he hath began to labour Let him hencefoorth doe what he can he cannot remooue this thought from our minde where as the other hath neuer appeared to vs but in his lustre So those whom we haue seene to play the men like our selues their Oracles and Prophets haue not beene approoued or esteemed among vs as those antient Philosophers whom it seemes that we cannot otherwise imagine then with their eyes and thoughts tyed fast to the bosome of the Diuinity and in a perpetuall re-search of the dependance and vniting together of second causes to this first sacred spring and fountaine we haue neuer seene them in their bed table or family If one and the same Age had made them our time-fellowes I know not if the familiarity of their life had not distasted vs of the familiaritie of their wits That Medales are not prised but for their rust and age and that Man so weake and wretched he is deserues no honour or praise but of those to whom he is vnknowne if his memory be too recent and fresh if the fame of his vertues be as yet but in his Orient he aduanceth with much difficulty For as at the rising of the Sunne we see a great thicke fogge of grosse vapours which seemes to arise but onely purposely to ecclipse and darken his light vntill with a bold and resolute pace he trample vnder his feete the pride of this malignant fogge who is so ielous and enuious of his brightnesse But in the middest of his course hauing attained the point of our Zenith then he seemes to Triumph ouer his Enemies as antiently vnder the Image of Apollo he quelled the arrogancy of that infamous Serpent of the Earth So I say the fame and glory of all those Illustrious personages hath commonly found its death in its cradle and in her very birth is still found obscured yea almost defaced by the hot vapours of a thousand enuious Spirits vntill that after the tract of many yeeres it in the end remaines Victorious of their life and likewise prooues so of their callumnie And then ariued to the point of the Zenith their merits haue found no farther hinderance to oreshadowe their glory and the length of time hauing transported them from our sight hath then likewise transported and secured them from the darts of enuie and scandall If Truth were borne or resided in the tongue of our neighbour it should be vndervalued yea contemned whereas we receiue it as an Oracle from that of a Stranger I admire not if those of elder times were so ambiguous in their answeres for the difficulty and intricacie thereof brought them more admiration We haue too bad an opinion of our selues in this onely and too good in all other things If hee who by the iudgement hee makes of man in generall would yet vse him with more contempt so as it were equally we then should haue nothing to gaine-say prouided I say That a Stranger which comes not to vs but by his writings and by that which is best in him could not hope for more particular fauour and applause then another among vs. But because it seemes that the glory which wee giue and conferre to this last diminish our owne we will therefore giue it farre cheaper and for lesse interest to him whom wee haue not seene and hauing nothing to intermeddle or doe with him But for an end to all it is alwayes man who giues and man who receiues As long as Art aad learning is found in him it shall still be to him a reproach of incertainty and ignorance O that the life of man is farre different from his Writings yea from himselfe Our Pen rules and gouernes the thoughts which we commit to paper and inconstancie those which wee permit to runne vpon the waues of our imagination but whosoeuer could see them in grosse and in their ordinary demarch and pace shall finde little lesse cause to laugh at the vanity and inanity of one then the other and at the fantasie of a Philosopher then wee doe at the May-games of a childe For despight of the order and polishing which we vse in the dependance and connexion of our discourse wee cannot for the most part auoide or preuent that our reasons doe not contend and assaile one the other as well as their effects In this small and short discourse there are contradictions enough but it matters not Reason contradicts her selfe and my opinion can turne it selfe no way whatsoeuer that shee meete not with some of her owne party and who will maintaine her in the point of her reasons so much humane knowledge hath of auerse and different faces Wee incessantly turne round about obiects and we can neither seize nor apprehend them but by strange qualities and outward apparances But the apparance and the subiect it selfe are different things If then our iudgement stop onely to apparances or outward shewes hee iudgeth of some thing which is not the subiect What certaintie in this incertaintie What light amidst so much darknesse What truth I say can result or arriue to vs if the matter or subiect according to the opinion of Pythagoras be in perpetuall changes and reuolution If wee haue no participation of a true being If all humane nature be still in the midst betweene birth and death the time present betwixt the past and the future and if it be true that Reason receiues nothing but which is brought him from without by the meanes and interuention of the senses which cast great mists betweene the true and false and betweene the obiect and the thought She can very difficultly come to the knowledge of Truth a-thwart so many cloudes of lusts Loues feares and hopes and of an infinity of false formes which frequently arise from our body to ouer-vaile and shadow our minde and to trouble the power of our imagination That if our soule doe not estrange her selfe from the contagion of the body and from his fantasies and frenzies it is in vaine that she attempt to reason or consult so certainly without the assistance of particular grace or speciall priuiledge which may descend to him from aboue She ought to know that shee is shut vp and confined in our body as in a strange place True it is shee beares about her this diuine desire of knowledge but it is a coyne or money which doth nothing else but vnprofitably load and charge her because it hath no currant course in that Country where she is The senses vnderstand not her language so that vnder their pleasure and mercy shee is enforced and constrained to content her selfe with what portion it pleaseth them to giue her Her morsels are cut if shee thinke to escape this
misfortune and the fairest fruites which she is capable to produce are Sighes Teares and Groanes the irreproachfull witnesses of the small courage of those who foment and cherish them But if it violently proceede from the good which we see others possesse then we tearme it Enuie A most infamous passion which being not able to offend others seeks to annoy and destroy himselfe and busking euery where seekes onely his owne tortures in other mens contentments Those who are eminent and sublime in Vertue seeme to haue their reputation exempt from the assaults and blowes of Enuie because commonly it ingendereth not but among equalls and those which by the same competition and concurrence aime at the same ends Iniust in their designes and onely iust in that they are sufficient for their owne proper vexation and to tie themselues to their owne torments Or if it happen that we are melancholly to see another participate of our goods then it is no more Sorrow but Ielousie which proceedes from the diffidence of himselfe and of his owne merits or from the defect of that which hee loues as Inconstancy or Leuitie whereof our heart secretly accuseth him or from the vertue or excellent parts which we see and obserue in our riuall Among all other passions it is she alone to whom most things serue for Phisique but least for remedie She screwes and insinuates her selfe vnder the title of good will and affection and yet on the foundation thereof she buildes her chiefest hatred And if any one contrariwise pretend that it is a signe of Loue I say that like as a fâ—auer in the body is a signe of life but yet of distempered corrupted life that so Iealousie may be a testimony of Loue but yet it is of an imperfect defâ—ctiue Loue for that which we suspect either is or is not If it be not we offeÌ„d that which we loue if it be is it not properly to ruine affection But is there a greater folly then to be eager in the knowledge of our owne shame and misery when there is no Phisique which doeth not augment and inflame it Bâ—t he who is curious in his owne damage informes himselfe thereof and hauing discouered it findes no remedie but which is a thousand times worse then his griefe and vexation me thinkes the sight of his passions is sufficient to make him detest them they haue deformity enough in them to exasperate our anger and hatred against them They are the seditious and factious persons of our Soule and the professed Enemies of our pâ—ace and tranquillity It is true that we may throw them to the ground and trample on them by the assistance addresse and subtilty of Vertue but doe what we can they will seeme anew to reuiue and re-enforce themselues as Antaeus the son of the Earth the blow of their fall makes them glance and rebound against vs and if they cannot wholly support and raise themselues they will yet enforce themselues to fight with vs on their knees The end of the fourth Discourse The fift Discourse Of Felicitie SECTION I. Euery thing naturally tends to its repose onely Man strayes from his Felicitie or if hee approach it he stayes at the branches insteede of embracing the truncke or body of the tree IN interiour diseases there is not much lesse art to know them then to cure them but especially then when their poyson hauing surprised the most secret and hidden parts is stollen from our sight yea and from the sense and feeling of him who harboureth it in his brest the most apparant and truest signe of curing such diseases is to expell the paine and to awaken in the patient his sleepie or benummed parts to the end that the feeling which he findes thereof make him assume the strength and courage to practise the remedies the which we haue already formerly done It remaines now that thou lend a strong hand to the remedies thereby to pull and roote vp these virulent humours Thinke not that thesâ— diseases are of the number and quality of those who are inchanted and which are cured with bare words The Phisitian and sicke patient doe neither aduance nor performe any good by discourse or words if they adde not effects thereto If occasion require we must vse Irons and fire to extirpe this plant there is such a distance from the Estate wherein this contagion hath reduced vs to that point which we seeke and desire that the changing of one to the other cannot bee performed with lesse violence To approoue any other way is to attempt an impossibility and herein to want courage is to dispaire of the cure and remedy of his disease Neuerthelesse we will attempt the most pleasing remedies and make vse of Irons and fire but in the greatest extreamities I conceiue and apprehend that some one will say to me thou wilt make me forsake my hold and so abandon a good in effect although it be some what sharpe and bitter to follow this felicity which thou proposest which it may be is a good in shew which in its selfe hath no other body but contempt nor soule but vntrueth and lies Hath any one discouered it out of the Empire of Fortune and what else is it but the fulnesse and the loade-stone of his fauours which attracts the eyes of all the World as the white and leuell of our desires and the center of our affections But that which we terme felicity without which there is nothing found but is false and imaginary No no I will not snatch out of your hands that which you affect and cherish so deerely nor bereaue your eyes of these obiects whose lustre vnites and ties them to it I will not cut off your pensions nor reuenewes and least of all diminish your credit and authority But by the increase and surplus of a 〈◊〉 good I will adde to that heape this soueraigne contentment which is not of their nâ—ture and grouth if we will beleeue 〈◊〉 disturbance which we meet with in the 〈◊〉 of their affluence This faire Goddesse Vertue whose 〈…〉 is beloued and honoured of all the World yea of her proper Enemies ought to lead and conduct vs by the hand in this passage and to put vs in possession of that felicity whereof we affect and cherish but the shadowes It is she which beares the key of the Treasury which hauing vnshut and opened we may all thrust in our hands for it is inexhaustible Our affections shall finde the inioyance of their desires and our insatiable thirst of loue shall finde wherewithall to quench this violent fire who in enioying the goods of Fortune did but the more enflame it Wee shall haue so much the more accesse and familiarity as our Nature doth sweetly encline vs. Doe I say that shee constraines vs with some degree of violence The desire which wee feele in our heart is it any other thing but a sparke of felicity which would ioyne as to his element and the place of
the height and sublimity of the same flight to select and make choyse of vigorous and masculine reasons in comparison of those which wee commonly vse and employ for our consolation which are as weake lame and feeble as our courage It some times falls out that the same reasons issuing from our mouth or pen as from theirs but not from our hearts and from the very bottome of our breasts Wee present them all rawe and as the boyling or bubling of a Fountaine renders his water without tasting or digesting it so wee onely preferre these words without knowing their price or value Our too rawe and indigested stomack cannot consume this meat and draw its nutriment thence Wee discourse in the same manner language and tearmes as they doe but yet wee thinke differently Our words are but as the rinds and barkes of our conceptions it is not enough that the report thereof come to our eares but the sense must also passe to our vnderstanding wee must cleaue them in sunder to gather the iuyce and Sugar of them and to discouer that which they haue in them of secret and hidden But our Morall vertue diminisheth that which is of the honour of her dignity shee hath sooner done to stoope and descend downe to vs then to lift our selues vp to her And then familiarizing and accommodating her selfe with our imperfections she perâ—mits vs to shed some teares Shee weepes with vs and fauoureth our plaints and mournings in their first and most furious violence vntill by little and little shee can diuert the eyes of our thoughts vpon some other remote obiect and so exhale and dissipate in the contemplation of contrary things the power of the spirits of our blood which were assembled conspired together about our heart to surmount and vanquish all sorts of consolations and so to permit onely the enterance of griefes torments bitter thoughts sharpe and cruell remembrings and other Officers of comfortlesse sorrow and affliction So this power being diuided is thereby so weakened that the first obiect being capable to enflame touch our thoughts to the quicke hee easily takes possession of the place and banisheth this importunate Tyrant from the seate and Empire which he had violently vsurped This remedy as the most sweet and pleasing is the most generall and vniuersall physicke which shee employes in the cure of violent'st passions All diseases of the minde are not cured but either by diuersion or by the equall sharing and diuision of our imagination in whose power resides all that they participate of sharpe or bitter because shee assembles and linkes together all the spirits of the soule which are perfectly purified and refined in the admirable nets which lye vnder the ventricle or posteriour part of the braine to marke him out the greatnesse of his euill or disease which it augments and encreaseth by this labour and paine as fire doth by the aboundance and affluence of wood And if this imagination can be diuided by the force and strength of a contrary obiect shee thereby makes her selfe weake and feeble in her functions and contrariwise in the ease or paine the good or euill which wee may feele The minde is a power which communicates her selfe wholly to the subiect to which shee is fixed tyed From whence it comes that we many times see her equally tormented at obiects of small value as at those things of farre greater consequence The good which enuironeth vs is not considerable to him in comparison of a little euill which at present presseth and afflicteth him And not being able to surprise this sorrowfull matter before hee haue let gone all the others hee then vnites and fastens yea glewes himselfe thereunto vntill he become drunke with this griefe And as the Horseleach still suckes out all the bad bloud vntill hee burst So the minde suckes and drawes hence all that is bitter vntill this poyson hauing engendred a kinde of an Impostume in our heart doth in the end burst therewith and frees her selfe thereof by our teares which distill and descend from our eyes If the rayes of the Sunne are fully receiued in the bottome of a burning Looking-glasse they there vnite in their centre and their power straying and defusing before they are recollected and assembled in this point doe so linke and fortifie themselues that they burne and destroy that which so sweetly they had formerly cherish'd and nourished Right so if the minde assemble all her powers and her intellectuall rayes in the force and strength of imagination as in the Christall of a Looking-glasse it destroyeth the tranquillity which it reuiued before by her benigne and gratious influences the which she generally owes to all the members of the body and whereof she cannot wholly dispose to the seruice of the one without the domage and preiudice of the others As it visibly befalls those who newly feele some griefe or anxiety or to those who dispose and addict themselues to things which require a strong imagination as Poesie Painting or Perspectiue Wee must then without giuing time or leasure to our minde to taste the poyson of this passion dispierce the rayes of this imagination by the alluring Charmes of a contrary obiect Hee who dies in the heat of a Combat with his weapons in his hands hath apprehended feared nothing lesse then death for glory is the point of honour choler and reuenge do equally preoccupate his thoughts and surpasse his imaginations so as there remaines in him no place to feare death And those who haue attempted to plant the Crosse among Infidells and cyment and water it with their blood thereby to make Christianity to encrease and fructifie they being possessed of this holy zeale hath not the force and power of their loue surmounted in them the feare of death Shall I say that the power of so liuely and so ardent an imagination by his extreame violence can likewise destroy the common function of the senses and hereby pull away the weapons out of the hands of griefe and paine because the senses make not their operations but by the helpe of the spirits which are dispierced in the muscles and arteries and generally throughout all the body which may be attracted by a suddaine motion to this superiour part and place of imagination so that the members remaine without this interiour operation and therefore without griefe or paine the which Celsus reports of a Priest but how truly I know not whose soule being rauished in an extasie left his body for a certaine time without respiration or any sense or feeling But as our letting blood and phlebotomizing is the onely remedy in these and the like suddaine accidents because hereby they attract the spirits to their region and duty So in strong imaginations be it that they proceede from extreame griefe or paine which takes vp all our senses in the contemplation of his misery or the deformity of his obiect which makes vs shake and tremble and stupifies and dulls our
and lame comparison insteed of diminishing doth exceedingly encrease and augment our paine As a great fire encreaseth by throwing a little water in it so our paine is the more incensed and exasperated by the image and remembrance of pleasure which presents it selfe to oppose it This grosse and stupid Ignorance which giues I know not what manner of patience to present euills and afflictions and carelesnesse to future sinister accidents is farre more aduantagious to humane Nature What neede is there that vnder the shewe and colour of good shee should come to discouer vs so tyrannicall a countenance and wayted and attended on by so many true euills and vexations and by her vaine and rash enterprise exposing to our sight the miserable estate of our condition Wee can neuer truly knowe our iust weight but in lifting our selues vp aboue the ground He who is well remoues not sayes the Italian prouerbe Nature had placed vs in a very firme and sure degree where wee ought to haue stayed Wee could not haue fallen from thence because it was the lowest step Man thinking to raise and eleuate himselfe higher hath prepared the danger of his owne fall Shee hath more liuely imprinted in our fancies their weight and greatnesse then the reasons and meanes to vanquish them I graunt that this Knowledge is the sweetest foode of the minde and that mans chiefest felicity proceedes from meditation But was it not farre better to haue exhausted and dried vp the head spring sith from thence is flowne the torrent of our miseries and afflictions The wisest and subtillest Philosophie is but folly to God and because wee are vpon reprehensions and reproaches wee may also accuse it to be guilty for the defect of those who haue separated and withdrawen themselues from the bosome of the Church It had beene better to haue failed to doe well for feare of some small euill which might ariue because wee farre more sensibly feele griefe then pleasure To man there is nothing more visible then good nor more sensible then euill We shal as litle feele a long health as the sweetnesse of a quiet and profound sleepe without dreames or interruption If we are troubled and tormented with an Ague that day which it ariued to vs shall of all the yeare be marked either with capitall or rubrick letters Our thoughts fix and tye themselues thereunto and they disdainfully steale ouer all the rest without seeing them and stop at nothing but at this displeasing remembrance In his health and possession he is peaceable of all other good things as those great riuers who in their beds and course commonly make small noyse and of his griefe it is as of those impetuous torrents and inundations which commonly by their precipitated motions astonish with their noyse and violence all those who dwell neere them Man knowes not his own good but by the absence and want thereof Hee cannot soundly iudge or esteeme of health but in his sicknesse Contrariwise the point of griefe and paine by reason of the feare we haue thereof which is as the shadow yea the true shadow which followes and deuanceth our body doth by her presence and his absence still afflict vs. Our senses fall into a swoon and slumber of ioy and are neuer awakened but by afflictions and sorrow Also shee is more moueable and inconstant then pleasure And if any extreame pleasure or voluptuousnesse will awaken vs and pinch vs with the sense and feeling thereof it must borrow I know not what point of griefe and paine which by a pleasing constraint will drawe from our tongue some tone of weeping and bewailing A peaceable life full of security and assurance and exempt and free from the stormes and tempests of Fortune resembleth a dead Sea without trouble or agitation as Demetrius affirmed But because in the estate whereunto the world is reduced As one said well It is easier to make a new then to reforme it Let vs leaue the Physitian to be calumniated and scandalized by him that is in health Buâ— for wee who languish in the assaults of euill and misery let vs shut our eyes to his imperfections If insteed of lancing our Impostume hee hath pricked vs neere it or hurted vs in any other delicate and sensible part of our body let vs not quarell with him for feare lest hee forsake and abandon vs and that thereby wee be doubly grieued and offended It may bee that hee will cure one or the other of our wounds but to beleeue that these remedies are so soueraine that all sorts of griefes and afflictions should and may hope for their entire cure thereof it is that which we cannot and therefore must not promise our selues Truth still giues the lye to flattery Great Alexander feeling himselfe wounded of an Arrow all the world said hee swore that I was the sonne of Iupiter but yet the bloud which streames from this my wound cries out wiâ—h a loud voyce that I am a man Let vs not thinke that Mineruas sonne and his dearest Fauorites haue any more dignified priuiledge The blowes of Fortune make them well remember that they are dull and stupid men because our body and the one halfe of our selues is a thing which wee possesse not but at his courtesie and mercie and whereof she hath farre more right and propriety then we The best Philosophie doth not indifferently cure all sorts of diseases and afflictions but without cherishing or diminishing the fauour which wee receiue thereof let vs endeuour not to esteeme it by its iust price and value Me thinkes that in this pilgrimage of our life shee resembleth the tree which the Traueller met in his way who if the weather be faire and cleare in beholding and considering it hee admires the beauty thereof and the sweetnesse and pleasantnesse of its fruit But if there happen any storme and shower of raine then hee flies vnder the branches thereof thereby to defend and shelter him from the iniurie of the weather although hee can difficultly so well saue and couer himselfe that he doe not yet feele many discommodities thereby But yet farre lesse by comparison then him who disdaining and contemning this shelter still continueth on his way and without any fence or defence whatsoeuer exposeth himselfe to the mercilesse mercy of the tempest When wee are at peace with Fortune there is no thing so sweet and pleasing as this Philosophie Doth Fortune regard vs with a bad eye Will she dart vpon vs the Arrowes of her choler then wee runne and arange our selues vnder this tree which as soone extendeth his branches ouer vs yea he weds our quarell and striues to defend the blowes or to quell and dead the violence thereof And yet wee cannot so well auoide it but yet there remaines many parts and places aboue vs whereby wee are exposed to the mercy of our enemie and to the point and fury of his choler The branches and shelâ—er of this tree may defend the Traueller from
raine hayle winde and lightning but if the thunder come to fall thereon it then teares its branches and thunder-claps our trauelling Pilgrime So Philosophie armes vs against contempt pouertie banishment and the other defects and vices of opinion and defends and sheltereth vs from the violent windes of passions But if sicknes and paine which is the thunder of Fortune fall vpon vs it teares all that it meetes withall breakes downe our weake baricadoes and defences and makes vs feele the points and edges of his indignation And yet the Thunder of heauen spared the sacred tree of Apollo but that of fortune without any respect to vertue that euer sacred and soueraine tree of thâ— Gods insolently breakes and teares it in peeces as triumphing in the losse and ruine thereof So that if the vertue of man could diuert and turne away this thunder from his head as she doth other iniuries of fortune I beleeue with reason that she might pretend the name and title of perfect and compleat felicity But likewise wee must not indifferently tearme all that to bee griefe and paine which afflicts vs Let vs therefore endeuour yea enforce our selues to restraine and keepe it within the surest bounds and limits that we can Let vs see what it is and if mans felicity may agree and sympathize with it according to the opinion of the Stoicks which for my part I beleeue not SECTION IV. As it belongs to none but to the minde to iudge of true or false so our sense ought to be the onely Iudge either of pleasure or paine ALL things should be considered absolutely and simply in their proper Essence and Being or relatiuely as regarding our selues Absolutely in their Being as the Earth the Sea the Sunne and the Starres which Essence or Being is equally spread and diffused euery where It is this truth which is not knowne in his Essence but onely of God and therefore where the point of humane wisedome in vaine striues to assaile it Or relatiuely in regard of our selues and then this reflexion engageth either our body or our minde If the body it is tearmed good or euill and there is none but our senses which haue right to iudge of a Knowledge which is infused to them and so much and so long conioyned that the harmony of the temperaments is not molested or troubled by any false agreement If the minde then it is tearmed true or false whereof the one caries the figure of good and the other of euill which is that which wee tearme ratiocination which from vniuersall propositions inferres and drawes particular consequences and composeth of this collection reduced in order by iudgement the Science or Knowledge of things But the minde and the body ioyning together in a community in those things which they had of each other in particular The minde secures the body and promiseth to prouide him a Sentinell to conserue and watch against the surprises of his Enemie which is paine or affliction by the meane of her care and fore-sight conditionally that shee may participate of the enioyance of those profits and pleasures which proceede from her But this agreement and harmony lasteth not long for the minde abuseth her selfe and this abuse is conuerted into tyrannie for of a companion that formerly she was she now becomes Master and violating the lawes of society shee vsurpes vpon the iurisdiction of the senses beleeuing that this vsurpation giues her an absolute right and full power to iudge of the quality of good or bad without consulting or taking counsell of the senses and then as shee will iudge that to be either good or bad which is not so will she doe of griefe or pleasure which was not of the same nature and in the end disposing soueraignly of all she is ariued to this height and point to beleeue that those pleasures which were fallen to the lot and share of the senses were obliged to content and satisfie her insatiable appetite without informing her selfe if they had worthily acquited themselues of their charge and functions which was to appease the hunger and desire of our senses The which desire because it is limited within the extent of its obiect is easily exchanged and conuerted into tranquillity and a peaceable enioying thereof In the meane time the minde playes the auerse and difficult still murmures and repines against it and entertaines man in this perturbation and perplexitie which you see He is become more amorous and affectionate to other mens children then to his owne and this bastard affection of his serues him as a paire of staires whereby by little and little he descends to the misunderstanding of himselfe and then being buried in the darknesse of obliuion he leaues in prey the inheritance which he had promised to giue to this community and renounced his owne which was lawfull which is the meditation or knowledge of true or false for as much as in the body of man the soule may bee capable to foment and cherish the goods or pleasures of her companion And farther if their profits or pleasures were of the same quality and nature when by any misfortune the portion of the one or other were ruined there would yet in the other lot and portion remaine enough to nourish and content them both As the Philosopher who liuing by the sweat and labour of his owne hands vaunted that thereby he was yet able to maintaine and nourish another like himselfe But the foode and nutriment of the one is not that of the other for all that which they haue truly in Commons betwixt them is the harmony which should make this musicke to be composed of spirituall and corporall things wherein if either the one or the other mutinie or rebell then expect no farther harmony or agreement for it is nothing else but confusion But the senses being conducted by the infused and cleare-sighted light of nature are better gouerned in their Common-wealth The one hath enterprised nothing against the other It neuer happens that the eye vndertakes to heare or the eare to see if it bee not abusiuely spoken But since they haue elected this inconstant mind to gouerne them as their head or Chieftain they haue reaped and receiued nothing but shame and confusion The eye findes nothing to be absolutely faire but that which raritie or opinion pleaseth to recommend to vs to be so So the Rose and Gilliflower are nothing in comparison of a flower which growes in the Indies or forraigne Countries But this Tyrant aduanceth yet farther for he puts them to the racke and makes them pay deerely for the errour of this their foolish indiscretion For the senses dare not embrace that which they prise and affect dearest without her free consent and permission If any ticklish desire giue them a contrary motion to that of reason then the minde lifts vp her hand and staffe and vseth them so vnkindly and vnworthily that there is no seruitude or slauery so rigorous They may well passe without