whisperings or private Conference that her Actions might have sufficient Witnesse and her Discourses a generall Audience Item That none shall marry against their own liking or free choice lest they make their Marriage an excuse for Adultery Item It shall be allowed for Maids to entertain all Honorable as Matrimonial Suters untill such time as she hath made choice of one of them to settle her Affections upon for it is good reason one should take time and observe Humors before they bind themselves in Wedlock Bonds for when once bound nothing but Death can part them but when they are once married their Ears to be sealed from all Loves pleadings protestings Vows making high praises and Complementall phrases Item That none shall keep a Mistris above halfe a year but change lest she grow more imporious than a Wife made of a Widow Item All Lovers shall be licensed to bragg or speak well of themselves to their Mistris when they have done no meritorious Actions to speak for them Item All those that have Beauty enough to make a Lover if they have not wit to keep a Lover shall be accounted no better than a senseless Statue Item It shall not be as it is in these Daies accounted a prise or purchase amongst Ladies to get either by their Wit or Beauty admiring Servants especially if they be of amorous natures for then Nature drives them to her Beauty or Wit more than her Wit or Beauty draws them to it Item All those that are proud without a cause it shall be a sufficient cause to be scorned Item Eloquence shall not be imployed nor pleaded in Amorous Discourses nor to make Falshood to appear like Truth but to dress and adorn Vertue that she may be accepted and entertained by those that will refuse and shun her acquaintance if she be clad in plain Garments Item There shall none condemn another Language nor account another to be better if it be Significant Copious and Eloquent such as the English Tongue is Item All passionate Speeches or Speeches to move passion shall be expressed in Number Item That all Natural Poets shall be honored with Title esteemed with Respect or enriched for the Civilizing of a Nation more than Contracts Laws or Punishments by Soft Numbers and pleasing Phansics and also guard a Kingdom more than Walls or Bulworks by creating Heroick Spirits with Illustrious Praises inflaming the Mind with Noble Ambition Noble Souls and Strong Bodies THough Noble Souls and great Wits dwell not constantly nor are allwaies created in Strong Bodies yet if Nature did choose her Materials match her Works and order her Creatures rightly and Sympathetically Strong Bodies should have noble Souls large Capacities and great Wits for Weak Bodies many times are a defect in Nature as much as shallow Wits or irrational Souls But surely if the chief and first Nature would work methodically and not seem as if she wrought at randome and to produce by Chance as she doth if Education and Custome which is a second Nature had not such a prevalent power to disturb and obstruct her and though Education and Custome may and doth somtimes rectify some Defects and help Life yet it doth more often puzzle Life and incumber Natures Works putting Nature out of the right ways with False Principles Foolish Customes and ill Education this is the reason natural Wits are many times lost not having time or leasure to exercise them or use them as I may say or for want of variety of Subjects or Objects to better them or dull'd by tedious and unprofitable Studies or quenched out by base Servitude or Subjection Also clear Understandings are darkened sound and strong Judgments weakened and false Judgments given and vain Conceptions and erroneous Opinions Maintaind or Believed for want of the True and the Right Waies Likewise the streught of the Body oftimes is weakened and effeminated by Luxurie Curiosity and Idleness which causeth Noble Souls Large Capacities Clear Understandings Fine Fancies and Quick Wits to dwell many times nay most commonly in weak Bodies for the better sort have most commonly more Plenty than Health the one devouring the other when the Meaner sort have meager Souls and barren Brains Rude Dispositions and Rough Natures have strong Limbs strengthned by Exercise and maintained by Labour healthfull bodies kept in repair by Temperance caused by scarcity and Poverty contented minds bred by Low Fortunes and Humble Desires when Wealth and Dignity create Vain Glory and Pride yet many times small Fortunes and great Wits agree best together but Noble Minds and Great Estates do the most good But in this Age although it be the Iron Age yet those men that have Effeminate Bodies as tender Youth loose Limbs smooth Skins fair Complexions fantastical Garbs affected Phrases strained Complements factious Natures detracting Tongues mischievous Actions and the like are admired and commended more or thought wiser than those that have Cenerous Souls Heroick Spirits Ingenuous Wits prudent Fore-cast Experienced Years Manly Forms Gracefull Garbes Edifying Discourses Temperate Lives Sober Actions Noble Natures and Honest Hearts but in former years it was otherwaies for Heroick Spirits in Masculine Forms had double praise as is expressed in the Grecian and Trojan Warrs and Princes were bred to labour as much as Pesants for though their Labour might be different the one being Servile the other Free yet the Burthen and pains-taking might be Equal though they carried not Pedlars Packs nor Porters Burthens yet they carried thick and heavy Arms and if they handled not the Sithe Pitch-Fork and Flail yet they handled the Sword the Spear the Dart the Bow the Sling and the like and if they knew not how to Mow to Reap and to Thrash yet they knew how to Assault to Defend and to Fight and though they digged not the Gold out of the Mines yet they digged Fortisications out of the Earth and if they set not Flowers on Banks or sowed Seeds in Furrows or ingrafted Slips or planted Trees to grow yet they set Armies in battail Array and sowed Lives in Adventures ingrafted Honor to the Stock of their Predeceslors and planted Fame to grow high in after Ages and though they drive not the Asses yet they mannage the Horses and if they want the Art to Yoak Oxen they want not the wisdome to Yoak the Vulgar with strickt Laws and if they will not drive a Flock of Sheep to the Fold they can lead a Number of Men to the Warrs and if they cannot build a House yet they can storm a City Thus galiant labours may strengthen the Bodies of Honorable Breed and Noble Minds freely and industriously without a Bondage or Slavery nay they may Row in Gallies yet not be subject to the Whip or Chains But as Masculine Bodies and Heroick Souls had a double esteem so Effeminate Bodies and timorous Spirits or rather Natures had a double despising as witness Paris of Troy but most Nations in those Ages spent their time in usefull Arts not
were carried many hundred miles let them be but loose and at their Liberty and they will return to their first Habitation wherefore they are forced to muffle many Creatures that they may not see which way they go because they should not know how to return Then that they are not Sociable nor delight in Society but we see they will play and sport with one another and Sheep love Company so well that they will not thrive nor grow but where there are great Flocks of them together Then that they have not Fancy but we see that Nightingales have great Fancy in the variety of their Tones and Notes and their Invention in many things beyond the Invention of Man Thus there is no Virtue nor Vice as Men call them but may be found in other Creatures as well as man but only we give our Knowledge proper Names and those none Again they say there is no War nor Tyranny in other Creatures or Animals but man yet certain there are many other Animals more Tyrannical Cruell even to their own kind than man and will take as heavy a Revenge one upon another and love Superiority and Power will not the Cocks fight as fiercely and cruelly one with another for Preheminency as men so Bulls against Bulls They say men have Command over Beasts but it is as some men have Command over others that is when they have more Power as Strength of Body or advantage of help either of Numbers Place or Time The Actions of Beasts THough Beasts be apter for some Actions than Men yet they are not made capable to exercise all in general as Running Leaping Jumping Drawing Driving Heaving Holding Staying Darting Digging Striking Grasping Cutting Peircing Diving Rowling Wreathing or Twisting Backwards Forwards Sideway Upward Downward turning their Joints any way as man can do Besides what curious Motions can Man move his Fingers to and what subtill Measures his Feer which no other Creature can do the like Thus every Member of Man is prompt ready and fitted for Action which makes him so industrious and inventive as he becomes so proud thereby that he thinks himself a petty God and yet all his Excellency lies in his Outward Shape which is not compleat but all his Inward is like to Beasts Wherefore Beasts might have been as capable as man if his outward Shape had been according so that one may almost think that the Soul is the outward Figure of a mans Body Of Birds ALL Birds are full of Spirit and have more ingenious Fancies than Beasts as we may see by their curious building of their Nests in providing for their Young in avoiding great Storms in choosing the best Seasons as by shifting their Habitation and in their flying in a pointed Figure which cuts or peirceth the Air which makes the Passage easy and so in many other things of the like Nature But the Reason seems to be because the chief Region they live in which is Air is pure and serene when Beasts live altogether on the Earth where the Air about is more Grosse by reason of continual thick Vapours that issue out but the Region wherein Birds fly is clarified by the Sun which makes the spirits of Birds more refined subtill and more lively or chearfull For all Beasts are heavy and dull in comparison of Birds having not Wings to fly into the serene Air But Beasts seem to have as much solid Judgement as clear Understandings as Birds and as providently carefull of their Subsistence and safty both for their Young and themselves as Birds But Birds have more Curiosity Fancy and Chearfullness than Beasts or indeed than Men for they are alwaies chirping and singing hopping and flying about but Beasts are like Grave Formal and Solid Common-Wealths-men and Birds like elevated Poets Of the Wooing of Beasts and Birds IT is not only the Spring time that makes Birds sing and chatter but it is their Wooing and striving to please their Mistrisses and Lovers for most Creatures keep a Noise and Dance when they Wooe as striving to express their Affections for the Noise of other Creatures is as much as making Verses by Men to their Mistrisses for those Noises are the several Languages to expresse themselves whereby they understand one another as Men. Of Passions THE Passions of the Mind are like the Humours of the Body for all Bodies have Choler Melancholy and Flegm nor could it be nourished without them so the Mind hath many Passions which without would be like a Stone so that there is no Humour of the Body or Passion of the Mind but is good if moderately bounded and properly placed but it is the Excess of the Humours and Passion that destroies the Body and Mind but the equal Ingredients of Humours make a strong Body and an equal Composure of Passions makes a Happy and a Noble Mind Of Appetite and Passion ALL natural Appetites are within Limits and all unnatural Appetites are without Limit and there is nothing more against Nature than Violence wherefore Man is the greatest Enemy to Nature for natural Passion or Action or Appetite are not Violent Violence being Artificial or Extravagant not Natural which is caused by Imagination Opinions Examples and Conversation which perswade Man to those Appetites which Violence doth work upon Of Like and Dislike WEE receive Like and Dislike as soon as we receive our Senses which is Life for when a Child is quick in the Womb Pain grieves it and Ease pleaseth it but Like and Dislike are not perfect Passions for though they are the Foundation of Love and Hate from which all Passions spring by the old Opinions yet are they not perfect Love or Hate Besides there is a difference betwixt Love Liking and Fondness for although Love hath a liking and is fond of what it placeth it self upon yet Liking and Fondness have not alwaies Love for true Love is unalterable when the other two are subject to Variety for true Love is lead by Reason and strengthened by Virtue Of Self-Love SElf love is the ground from whence springs all Indeavours and Industry Noble Qualities Honorable Actions Friendships Charity and Piety and is the cause of all Passions Affections Vices and Virtues for we do nothing or think not of any thing but hath a reference to our selves in one kind or other either in things Divine Humane or Natural for if we part with Life which is the chiefest good to Mankind it is because we think in Death there is lesse Pain than in Life without that we part with Life for and if we endure Torment which is worse than Death for any Thing or Opinion it is because our Delight of what we suffer for is beyond all Pains which Delight proceeds from Self-Love and Self-Love is the strongest Motion of the Mind for it strives to attract all Delight and gathers together like the Sun Beams in one Point as with a Glass wherewith it sets all one fire So Self-Love infires the Mind
not so much the Wisdome of Henry the Seventh that gave him the Crown as his Good Fortune in having a Tyrant Opposer on which the Peoples fear was above their feeling for they did apprehend more Tyrannie than they found in the time that Richard did reign for he made more good Laws in the time of his Reign than had been made in the Reign of many Kings before or after him But the Peoples mistrust cannot be satisfied with any Act let it be never so just or profitable but by their absence which they never think far enough untill they go to the Shades of Death and many times that which they believe will prove the best for them proves the worst because they follow not Reason but Will For Henry the Seventh whom they thought to be most happy under proved but a Tyrant in his Acts although a Saint in his Words for he brought by the means of Projecting and Informing Knaves the greatest or indeed all Estates to be Forfeited and so to be Compounded for by which he raised great Sums of Money to the ruining of many Antient Families yet he reigned peaceably most part of all his time which many a better and juster Prince had not the fortune to do Of the Emperors MOST commonly it may be said of Kings or Governors as they say of March It comes in like a Lion it goeth out like a Lamb and when it comes in like a Lamb it goeth out like a lion But when a Man desires to raise an Empire or himself to be an Emperor he flatters the People but when he is once become Emperor he makes the People flatter him Caesar might have proved a good Emperor but he had not time to be an ill one Augustus Caesar was a wise Prince he knew there was no way to settle the new-born Empire and to enjoy it peaceably but by gaining the Love of the People not by the base servile way of Flattery but by executing Justice and making wise and good Laws Tiberius was a good Prince whilst the memory of Augustus lasted in the Minds of the People and a wise Prince that he could dissemble his Humour so well and so long and none was so fit as Ascianus to bring him to bed of his great belly'd Cruelty Tiberius was of a lazy disposition as we may know by his solitary and luxurious life Nero came too soon to the Empire to reign well Vanities the Rulers of Youth despise Prudence and Temperance the Companions of Age his Vanities bred Vices his Vices bred Fear Fear bred Jealousie Jealousie bred Tyrannie Tyrannie bred Conspiracy and Conspiracy Destruction in brief he had not Age enough to poyse him he killed himself more out of Fear than Courage Both the Neroes the Uncles and the Cosen were much of a humour Nero Germanicus his Son he was Proud Cowardly Effeminat Envious Vainglorious Covetous to get Prodigal to spend Cruel without Craft and Mad he was not wise enough to rule his Empire nor temperate enough to govern his Vanities nor couragious enough to dissemble his Fears or be a good Prince As for Claudius the Emperour he was more learned than wise and he had more good Nature than Constancy and whatsoever ill he did he was seduced to do it by those he loved True it is he was of an easy Disposition but that proceeds more from a good Disposition in Nature than an evil one and it rather comes from Love than Hate although the Effects be all one for he that is easily perswaded and suddenly believes commits more Cruelty by his Credulity than distributes Justice by his good Nature As for Galba he had too narrow a Soul for so great an Empire for the Vices of Age and Covetousness had got hold of him he was Old and Crazy he had no Generosity to entice nor Sweet Behaviour to win nor Oratory to perswade nor Industry to order nor Faith to perform and whatsoever Man hath these Faults must needs get more Enemies than Friends As for Otho he had not Patience to try his Fortune neither lived he so long as any one could judge of his Government he was better beloved of his Souldiers than fortunate in their Successes besides he was beloved more of the People after he was dead than when he was living but whether he killed himself for the grief of those Souldiers that were lost or fear of the loss of the rest or for fear of himself it is doubtfull Vitelius was cruel gluttonous and of an unworthy nature For Vespasian he was very greedy of Gain to the height of Covetousness and yet he was very Generous for whatsoever he got though ill yet he bestowed it well he was a very mercifull Prince and very few Faults to be found in him He sprung from a Family of no great growth Titus Flavius Son to Vespasian he was so good there cannot enough be said in praise of him he was a Wise Prince and a Just Prince a Mercifull Prince and a Loving Temperate Carefull and Religious Prince he seemed to have more Goodness in him than were waies or means to express it he was Valiant Learned Mild Patient Industrious Skilfull in all Arts and Majestical Flavius Domitianus was Cruel and Vainglorious he followed not the steps of his Father nor Brother I observe Ill-born Natures cannot be bettered by Good Examples nor warned by Ill Examples for all the Cruel Emperors came to Untimely Deaths Of Pompey with Caesar. SOme praise Pompey and say He was a faithfull and loving Citizen of Rome a Father in defending the Laws and Liberties and a Martyr in dying in the Cause Others dispraise him and say It was Envy to Caesar that brought him out against him more than for the Publick Good and that if Pompey had had but the same Fortune he would have taken upon him the same Command Others again praise Caesar and say that he was forced to use his Power and Arms against the Senate out of necessity the one being much in Debt having exhausted his Estate the other in defence of his Life knowing the Senate would accuse him instead of rewarding him for his good Service and that Rational Men may judge by the succession of Story that he was necessitated and that Fortune being on his side gave him greater Hopes and higher Designs which he thought not at first on and that he had Reason though he had not been necessitated for though the Roman Government began from a Low and Mean Beginning yet it came to be the most Powerfull and Famous whilst Mediocrity ruled amongst them for at first their Poverty made them Just not daring to do Wrong and Prudent in providing the best waies and means to keep and raise themselves and Valiant and Industrious to defend themselves and to increase their Dominions Thus Virtues begot their Strength and raised their Fame But their good Fortune brought Plenty and Plenty Pride the one runs into Luxury the other into Ambition and Ambition begot Factions