first Places We are I conceive knowing only in present Knowledge and not at all in what is past no more than in that which is to come But the worst on 't is their Scholars and Pupils are no better nourish'd by this kind of Inspiration nor it makes no deeper Impression upon them than the other but passes from hand to hand only to make a shew to be tolerable Company and to tell pretty Stories like a counterfeit Coyn in Counters of no other use nor value but to reckon with or to set up at Cards Apud alios loqui didicerunt non ipsi secum Non est loquendum sed gubernandum They have learn'd to speak from others not from themselves Speaking is not so necessary as Governing Nature to shew that there is nothing barbarous where she has the sole Command does oftentimes in Nations where Art has the least to do cause productions of Wit such as may rival the greatest Effects of Art whatever As in relation to what I am now speaking of the Gascon Proverb deriv'd from a Corn-pipe is very quaint and subtle Bouha prou bouha mas a remuda lous dits qu'em You may blow till your Eyes start out but if once you offer to stir your Fingers you will be at the end of your Lesson We can say Cicero says thus that these were the Manners of Plato and that these are the very Words of Aristotle but what do we say our selves that is our own What do we do What do we judge A Parrot would say as much as that And this kind of Talking puts me in mind of that rich Gentleman of Rome who had been sollicitous with very great Expence to procure men that were excellent in all sorts of Science which he had always attending his Person to the end that when amongst his Friends any Occasion fell out of speaking of any Subject whatsoever they might supply his Place and be ready to prompt him one with a Sentence of Seneca another with a Verse of Homer and so forth every one according to his Talent and he fancied this Knowledge to be his own because in the Heads of those who liv'd upon his Bounty As they also do whose Learning consists in having noble Libraries I know one who when I question him about his Reading he presently calls for a Book to shew me and dare not venture to tell me so much as that he has Piles in his Posteriours till first he has consulted his Dictionary what Piles and what Posteriours are We take other Mens Knowledge and Opinions upon Trust which is an idle and superficial Learning we must make it our own We are in this very like him who having need of Fire went to a Neighbours House to fetch it and finding a very good one there fate down to warm himself without remembring to carry any with him home What good does it do us to have the Stomach full of Meat if it do not digest and be not incorporated with us if it does not nourish and support us Can we imagine that Lucullus whom Letters without any manner of Experience made so great and so exact a Leader learnt to be so after this perfunctory manner We suffer our selves to lean and relye so over-strongly upon the Arm of another that by so doing we prejudice our own Strength and Vigour Would I fortifie my self against the fear of Death it must be at the Expence of Seneca Would I extract Consolation for my self or my Friend I borrow it from him or Cicero whereas I might have found it in my self had I been train'd up to make use of my own Reason I do not fancy this relative mendicant and precarious Understanding for though we could become learned by other Mens Reading I am sure a Man can never be wise but by his own Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who in his own Concern's not wise I that Man's Wisdom do despise From whence Ennius Nequidquam sapere sapientem qui ipsi sibi prodesse non quiret That wise man knows nothing who cannot profit himself by his Wisdom Non enim paranda nobis solum sed fruenda sapientia est For Wisdom is not only to be acquir'd but enjoy'd Dionysius laught at the Grammarians who cudgell'd their Brains to enquire into the Miseries of Vlysses and were ignorant of their own at Musicians who were so exact in tuning their Instruments and never tun'd their Manners and at Orators who studied to declare what was Justice but never took care to do it If the Mind be not better dispos'd if the Judgment be no better settled I had much rather my Scholar had spent his time at Tennis for at least his Body would by that means be in better Exercise and Breath Do but observe him when he comes back from School after fifteen or sixteen Years that he has been there there is nothing so aukward and maladroit so unfit for Company or Employment and all that you shall find he has got is that his Latine and Greek have only made him a greater and more conceited Coxcomb than when he went from home He should bring his Soul repleat with good Literature and he brings it only swell'd and puff'd up with vain and empty Shreds and Snatches of Learning and has really nothing more in him than he had before These Pedants of ours as Plato says of the Sophists their Cousin-Germans are of all Men living they who most pretend to be useful to Mankind and who alone of all Men not only do not better and improve that is committed to them as a Carpenter or a Mason would do but make them much worse and make them pay for being made so to boot If the Rule which Protagoras propos'd to his Pupils were followed either that they should give him his own Demand or make Affidavit upon Oath in the Temple how much they valued the Profit they had receiv'd under his Tuition and accordingly satisfie him our Pedagogues would find themselves basely gravell'd especially if they were to be judg'd by the Testimony of my Experience Our vulgar Perigordin Patois does pleasantly call them Pretenders to Learning Lettre-ferits as a Man should say Letter-mark'd a man on whom Letters have been stamp'd by the Blow of a Mallet and in truth for the most part they appear to have a soft place in their Skuls and to be depriv'd even of common Sense For you see the Husbandman and the Cobler go simply and honestly about their Business speaking only of what they know and understand whereas these Fellows to make parade and to get opinion mustering this ridiculous knowledge of theirs that swims and floats in the Superficies of the Brain are perpetually perplexing and entangling themselves in their own Nonsence They speak fine words sometimes 't is true but let some body that is wiser apply them They are wonderfully well acquainted with Galen but not at all with the Disease of the Patient they have already deaf'd you
Act of the Emperour Charles the Fifth was that when in imitation of some of the Ancients of his own Quality confessing it but reason to strip our selves when our Cloaths encumber and grow too heavy for us and to lie down when our Legs begin to fail us he resign'd his Dignity Grandeur and Power to his Son when he found the vigour and steadiness in the Conduct of his Affairs to fail in himself with the Glory he had therein acquir'd Solve senescentem maturè sanus equum ne Peccet ad extremùm ridendus ilia ducat The old worn Courser in good time dismiss Lest failing in the Lists Spectators hiss This fault of not perceiving betimes and not being sensible of the feebleness and extream alteration that Age naturally brings both upon the Body and Mind which in my opinion is equal if the Soul is no more than the half has lost the Reputation of most of the Great men in the World I have known in my time and been intimately acquainted with some Persons of very great Quality whom a man might easily discern so manifestly laps'd from their former sufficiency I was sure they were once endu'd with by the Reputation they had acquired in their former years that I could heartily for their own sakes have wisht them at home at their ease discharg'd of their Publick Military Employments which were now grown too heavy for their Shoulders I have formerly been very familiar in a Gentleman's House a Widower and very old though healthy and chearful enough This Gentleman had several Daughters to marry and a Son already of a ripe age which brought upon him many Visits and a great Expence neither of which did very well please him not only out of consideration of Frugality but yet more for having by reason of his Age enter'd into a course of Life far differing from ours I told him one day a little boldly as I use to do that he would do better to give us room and to leave his principal House for he had but that well scituated and furnisht to his Son and retire himself to an Estate he had hard by where no body would trouble his Repose seing he could not otherwise avoid being importun'd by us the Condition of his Children considered He took my advice afterwards and found an advantage by so doing I do not mean that a man should so instate them as not to reserve to himself a liberty to recant I who am now arriv'd to the age wherein such things are fit to be done would resign to them the enjoyment of my House and Goods but with a power of Revocation if they should give me cause to alter my mind I would leave to them the Use they being no longer proper for me and of the general Authority and Power over all would reserve as much as I thought good to my self Having always thought that it must needs be a great satisfaction to an aged Father himself to put his Children into the way of governing his Affairs and to have power during his own life to controul their Deportments supplying them with Instruction and Advice from his own Experience and himself to transfer the ancient Honour and Order of his House into that of those who are to succeed him and by that means to be responsible to himself by the hopes he may conceive for their future conduct And in order to this I would not avoid their company I would observe them near at hand and partake according to the condition of my age of their Feasts and Jollities If I did not live amongst them which I could not do without being a disturbance to them by reason of the morosity of my age and the restlesness of my Infirmities and without violating also the Rules and Order of living I should then have set down to my self I would at least live near them in some remote part of my House not the best in shew but the most commodious Nor as I saw some years ago a Dean of St. Hilaâ—re of Peiâ—iers by his Melancholy given up to such a solitude that at the time I came into his Chamber it had been Two and twenty years that he had not stept one foot out of it and yet had all his Motions free and eat and was in perfect health saving a little Rheume that fell upon his Lungs He would hardly once in a week suffer any one to come in to see him he always kept himself shut up in his Chamber alone except that a Servant brought him once a day something to eat and did then but just come in and go out again His Employment was to walk up and down and read some Book for he was a piece of a Scholar but as to the rest obstinately bent to die in this Retirement as he presently after did I would endeavour by a sweet and obliging Conversation to create in my Children a lively and unfeigned friendship and good will which in well-descended Natures is not hard to do for if they be Brutes of which this Age of ours produces thousands we are then to hate and avoid them I am angry at the Custom very much in use of forbidding Children to call their Father by the name of Father and to enjoyn them another as more full of respect and reverence as if Nature had not sufficiently provided for our Authority We call Almighty God Father and disdain to have our Children call us so I have reform'd this Errour in my Family And 't is also folly and injustice to deprive Children when grown up of a familiarity with their Father and to carry a scornful and austere Countenance toward them thinking by that to keep them in awe and obedience for it is a very idle force that in stead of producing the Effect design'd renders Fathers distastful and which is worse ridiculous to their own Children They have Youth and Vigour in possession and consequently the breath and favour of the World and therefore receive these fierce and tyrannical looks mere Scar-Crows of a man without blood either in his Heart or Veins with mockery and contempt Though I could make my self fear'd I had yet much rather make my self belov'd There are so many sorts of defects in old Age so much impuissancy and it is so liable to contempt that the best purchase a man can make is the kindness and affection of his own Family Command and Fear are no more his Weapons Such a one I have known who having been very insolent in his Youth when he came to be old though he might have liv'd at his full ease and had his judgment as entire as ever would yet torment himself and others strike rant swear and curse the most tempestuous Master in France fretting himself with unnecessary suspicion and vigilancy and all this rumble and clutter but to make his Family cheat him the sooner and the more of his Barn his Kitchin Cellar nay and his very Purse too others had the greatest use
would go equal in our Affections with Riches Pleasures Glory and our Friends The best of us is not so much afraid to injure him as he is afraid to injure his Neighbour his Kinsman or his Master Is there any so weak Understanding that having on one side the Object of one of our vicious Pleasures and on the other in equal knowledge and perswasion the State of an Immortal Glory will dispute for the first against the other And yet we oftimes renounce this out of pure Contempt For what lust tempts us to blaspheme if not peradventure the very desire to offend The Philosopher Antisthenes as the Priest was initiating him in the Mysteries of Orpheus telling him that those who profest themselves of that Religion were certain to receive Perfect and Eternal Felicities after Death if thou believest that answered he Why doest not thou dye thy self Diogenes more rudely according to his manner and more remote from our purpose to the Preist that in like manner preached to him to become of his Religion that he might obtain the Happiness of the other World What said he Thou wouldest have me believe that Agesilaus and Epaminondas who were so Great Men shall be miserable and that thou who art but a Calf and canst do nothing to purpose shalt be happy because thou art a Priest Did we receive these great Promises of Eternal Beatitude with the same Reverence and Respect that we do a Philosophical Lecture we should not have Death in so great Horror Non jam se moriens dissolvi conquereretur Sed magis ire foras vestémque relinquere ut anguis Gauderet praelonga senex aut cornua Cervus We should not then dying repine to be Dissolv'd but rather step out chearfully From our Old Hut and with the Snake be glad To cast the Old uneasie slough we had Or with th' Old Stag rejoyce to be now clear From the large Head too pondrous grown to bear I desire to be dissolv'd we should say and to be with Jesus Christ. The force of Plato's Arguments concerning the Immortality of the Soul sent some of his Disciples to untimely Graves that they might the sooner enjoy the things he had made them hope for All which is a most evident sign that we only receive our Religion after our own fashion by our own hands and no otherwise than other Religions are receiv'd Either we are come into the Country where it is in Practice or we bear a Reverence to the Antiquity of it or to the Authority of the Men who have maintained it or fear the Menaces it fulminates against Miscreants or are allur'd by its Promises These Considerations ought 't is true to be applyed to our Belief but as Subsidiaries only for they are Human Obligations Another Religion other Witnesses the like Promises and Threats might by the same way imprint a quite contrary Belief We are Christians by the same Title that we are Perigordins and Germans And what Plato says that there are few Men so obstinate in their Atheism that a pressing Danger will not reduce to an Acknowledgment of the Divine Power does not concern a true Christian 't is for Mortal and Human Religions to be received by Human Recommendation What kind of Faith can we expect that should be that Cowardize and want of Courage does establish in us A pleasant Faith that does not believe what it believes but for want of Courage to believe it Can a vicious Passion such as Inconstancy and Astonishment cause any regular Product in our Souls They are confident in their own Judgment says he That what is said of Hell and future Torments is all feign'd But an Occasion of making the Experiment presenting it self that Old Age or Diseases bring them to the Brink of the Grave the Terrour of Death by the Horror of that future Condition inspires them with a new Belief And by reason that such Impressions render them timorous he forbids in his Laws all such threatning Doctrines and all Perswasion that any thing of ill can befall a Man from the Gods excepting for his great good when they happen to him and for a Medicinal effect They say of Bion that infected with the Atheisms of Theodorus he had long had Religious Men in great scorn and contempt but that Death surprising him he gave himself up to the most extream Superstition as if the Gods withdrew and return'd according to the Necessities of Bion. Plato and his Examples would conclude that we are brought to a Belief of God either by reason or by force Atheism being a Proposition as unnatural and monstruous so difficult also and very hard to sink into Human Understanding how arrogant and irregular soever there are enow seen out of Vanity and Pride to be the Author of extraordinary and reforming Opinions have outwardly affected the Profession who if they are such Fools have nevertheless not had the power to plant them in their own Conscience Yet will they not fail to lift up their Hands towards Heaven if you give them a good thrust with a Sword into the Bosom and when Fear or Sickness has abated and supprest the licentious Fury of this giddy Humour they will easily reunite and very discreetly suffer themselves to be reconciled to the Publick Faith and Examples A Doctrine seriously disgested is one thing and those superficial Impressions another which springing from the Disorder of an unhing'd Understanding float at random and great uncertainty in the Fancy Miserable and senseless Men who strive to be worse than they can The Error of Paganism and the Ignorance of our Sacred Truth let this great Soul but great only in Human Greatness fall yet into this other Mistake that Children and Old Men were most susceptible of Religion as if it sprung and deriv'd its Reputation from our Weakness The Knot that ought to bind the Judgment and the Will that ought to restrain the Soul and joyn it to the Creator must be a Knot that derives the Foldings and Strength not from our Considerations from our Reasons and Passions but from a Divine and Supernatural Constraint having but one Form one Face and one Lustre which is the Authority of God and his Divine Grace Now the Heart and Soul being governed and commanded by Faith 't is but reason that they should muster all their other Faculties for as much as they are able to perform to the Service and Assistance of their Design Neither is it to be imagined that all this Machin has not some Marks imprinted upon it by the Hand of the mighty Architect and that there is not in the thing of this World some Image that in some measure resembles the Workman who has built and form'd them He has in his stupendious Works left the Character of his Divinity and 't is our own Weakness only that hinders us we cannot discern it 'T is what he himself is pleased to tell us that he manifests his invisible Operations to us by
are able to take were capable or the Force of our Understanding sufficient to participate of Beatitude or Eternal Pains We should then tell him from Human Reason If the Pleasures thou dost promise us in the other Life are of the same kind that I have injoy'd here below this has nothing in common with Infinity Though all my five Natural Senses should be even loaded with Pleasure and my Soul full of all the Contentment it could hope or desire we know what all this amounts to all this would be nothing If there be any thing of mine there there is nothing Divine if this be no more than what may belong to our present Condition it cannot be of any value All Contentment of Mortals is mortal Even the Knowledge of our Parents Children and Friends if that can effect and delight us in the other World if there that still continue a satisfaction to us we still remain in earthly and finite Conveniences We cannot as we ought conceive the greatness of these High and Divine Promises if we could in any sort conceive them To have a worthy Imagination of them we must imagine them inimaginable inexplicable and incomprehensible and absolutely another thing than those of our miserable experience Eye hath not seen saith St. Paul nor ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him And if to render us capable our being be reform'd and chang'd as thou Plato sayst in thy Purifications it ought to be so extream and total a Change that by Physical Doctrine it will be no more Hector erat tunc cùm bello certabat at ille Tractus ab Aemonio non erat Hector equo He Hector was whilst he could fight but when Drag'd by Achilles Steeds no Hector then It must be something else that must receive these Recompences quod mutatur dissolvitur interit ergo Trajiciuntur enim partes atque ordine migrant What 's chang'd dissolv'd is and doth therefore dye For parts are mixt and from their Order fly For in Pythagoras his Metempsycosis and the change of Habitation that he imagin'd in Souls can we believe that the Lyon in whom the Soul of Caesar is inclos'd does espouse Caesar's Passions or that the Lyon is he For if it was still Caesar they would be in the right who controverting this Opinion with Plato reproach him that the Son might be seen to ride his Mother transform'd into a Mule and the like Absurdities And can we believe that in the Mutations that are made of the Bodies of Animals into others of the same kind that the new Commers are not other than their Predecessors From the Ashes of a Phoenix a Worm they say is engendred and from that another Phoenix who can imagine that this second Phoenix is not other than the first We see our Silk-worms as it were dye and wither and from this wither'd Body a Butterflie is produced and from that another Worm how ridiculous would it be to imagine that this were still the first That which has once ceas'd to be is no more Nec si materiam nostram collegerit aetas Post obitum rursumque redegerit ut sit a nunc est Atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitae Pertineat quidquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum Interrupta semel cùm sit repetentia nostra Neither though time should gather and restore Our Matter to the Form it was before And give again new Light to see withal Would that new Figure us concern at all Or we again ever the same be seen Our Being having interrupted been And Plato when thou saist in another place that it shall be the Spiritual part of Man that will be concern'd in the Fruition of the Recompences of another Life thou tellest us a thing wherein there is as little appearance of Truth Scilicet avolsis radicibus ut neque ullam Dispicere ipse oculus rem seorsum corpore toto No more than Eyes once from their Opticks torn Can ever after any thing discern For by this account it would no more be Man nor consequently us who should be concern'd in this Enjoyment For we are compos'd of two principally Essential Parts the separation of which is the Death and Ruin of our Being Inter enim jacta est vitai pausa vagèque Deerarunt passim motus ab sensibus omnes When Life 's extinct all Motions of Sence Are ta'ne away dispers'd and banish'd thence We cannot say that the Man suffers much when the Worms feed upon his Members and that the Earth consumes them Et nihil hoc ad nos qui coitu conjugiòque Corporis atque animae consistimus uniter apti What 's that to us who longer feel not Pain Than Body and Soul united do remain Moreover upon what Foundation of their Justice can the Gods take notice of or reward Man after his Death for his good and vertuous Actions since it was they themselves that put them in the way and mind to do them And why should they be offended at or punish him for wicked ones since themselves have created him in so frail a condition and what with one Glaunce of their Will they might prevent him from falling Might not Epicurus with great colour of Human Reason object that to Plato did he not often save himself with this Sentence That it is impossible to establish any thing certain of the immortal Nature by the Mortal She does nothing but err throughout but especially when she meddles with Divine things Who does more evidently perceive this than we For although we have given her certain and infallible Principles and though we have inlightned her Steps with the Sacred Lamp of Truth that it has pleas'd God to communicate to us we daily see nevertheless that if she swerve never so little from the ordinary Path and that she strays from or wander out of the way set out and beaten by the Church how soon she loses confounds and fetters her self tumbling and floating in this vast turbulent and waving Sea of Human Opinions without restraint and without any determinate end So soon as she loses that Great and Common Road she enters into a Labyrinth of a thousand several Paths Man cannot be any thing but what he is nor imagine beyond the reach of his Capacity 'T is a greater Presumption says Plutarch in them who are but Men to attempt to speak and discourse of the Gods and Demi-Gods than it is in a Man utterly ignorant of Musick to judge of Singing or in a Man who never saw a Camp to dispute about Arms and Martial Affairs presuming by some light Conjecture to understand the effects of an Art he is totally a Stranger to Antiquity I believe thought to put a Complement upon and to add something to the Divine Grandeur in assimilating it to Man investing it with his Faculties and adorning it with his ugly Humors and more
to have stript her of her Means and Powers and to have disarm'd her only from the time of her Captivity and Imprisonment in the Flesh of her Weakness and Infirmity from the time wherein she was forc'd and compell'd to extract an infinite and perpetual Sentence and Condemnation and to insist upon the Consideration of so short a time peradventure but an hour or two or at the most but an Age which have no more proportion with Infinity than an Instant for this Momentary Interval to ordain and definitively to determine of her whole Eternity It were an unreasonable disproportion to extract an eternal Recompence in consequence of so short a Life Plato to defend himself from this inconvenience will have future Rewards limited to the term of a hundred years relatively to Human Duration And of us our selves there are enow who have given them Temporal Limits By this they judg'd that the Generation of the Soul follow'd the common condition of Human things As also her Life according to the Opinion of Epicurus and Democritus which has been the most receiv'd in consequence of these fine apparences that they saw it born and that according as the Body grew more capable they saw it increase in Vigour as the other did that its feebleness in Infancy was very manifest and in time its better Strength and Maturity and after that its Declension and Old Age and at last its decripitude gigni pariter cum corpore unà Crescere sentimus paritèrque senescere mentem Souls with the Bodies to be born we may Discern with them t' increase with them decay They perceiv'd it to be capable of divers Passions and agitated with several painful Motions from whence it fell into lassitude and uneasiness capable of Alteration and Change of Chearfulness and Stupidity and Faintness and subject to Diseases and Injuries as the Stomach or the Foot Mentem sanari corpus ut aegrum Cernimus flecti medicina posse videmus Sick Minds as well as Bodies we do see By Medicines Vertue oft restor'd to be Dazled and intoxicated with the Fumes of Wine justled from her Seat by the Vapours of a burning Feaver laid asleep by the application of some Medicaments and rous'd awake by others Corpoream naturam animi esse necesse est Corporis quoniam telis ictúque laborat There must be of necessity we find A Nature that 's corporal of the Mind Because we evidently see it smarts And wounded is with Shafts the Body darts They saw it in Astonishment and such a one as overthrow all its Faculties through the mere Contagion of a mad Dog and in that condition to have no Stability of Reason no Sufficiency no Vertue no Philosophical Resolution no resistance that could exempt it from the subjection of Accidents The slaver of a contemptible Curr shed upon the hand of Socrates to shake all his Wisdom and all his great and regular Imaginations and so to annihilate them as that there remain'd no Tracen or Footstep of his former Knowledge vis animai Conturbatur divisa seorsum Disjectatur eodem illo distracta veneno Th' power of the Souls disturb'd and when That once is but sequestred from her then By the same Poyson 't is dispers'd abroad And this Poyson to find no more resistance in that great Soul than in that of an Infant of four years old A Poyson sufficient to make all Philosophy if it were incarnate to become furious and mad insomuch that Cato who ever disdain'd Death and Fortune could not indure the sight of a Looking-glass or of Water confounded with Horror and Affright at the thought of falling by the Contagion of a mad Dog into the Disease call'd by Physitians Hydrophobia vis morbi distracta per artus Turbat agens animam spumantes aequore falso Ventorum ut validis fervescunt viribus undae Throughout the Limbs diffus'd the fierce Disease Disturbs the Soul as in the briny Seas The foaming Waves to swell and boyl we see Stirr'd by the Winds impetuosity Now as to this particular Philosophy has sufficiently arm'd Man to encounter all other Accidents either with Patience or if the Search of that costs too dear by an infallible Defeat in totally depriving himself of all sentiment But these are Expedients that are only of use to a Soul being it self and in its full power capable of Reason and Deliberation But not at all proper for this Inconvenience where even in a Philosopher the Soul becomes the Soul of a Madman troubled overturn'd and lost Which many Occasions may produce as a too vehement Agitation that any violent Passion of the Soul may beget in it self or a Wound in a certain part of the Person or Vapours from the Stomach any of which may stupify the Understanding and turn the Brain Morbis in corporis auius errat Saepe animus dementit enim deliraque fatur Interdúmque gravi lethargo fertur in altum Aeternúmque soporem oculis nutúque cadenti For when the Body's sick and ill at ease The Mind does often share in the Disease Wanders grows wild and raves and sometimes by A heavy and a stupid Lethargy Is overcome and cast into a deep A most profound and everlasting Sleep The Philosophers methinks have not much touch'd this string no more than another of the same Importance They have this Dilemma continually in their Mouths to consolate our mortal Condition The Soul is either mortal or immortal if mortal it will suffer no pain if immortal it will change for the better they never touch the other Branch what if she change for the worse and leave to the Poets the menaces of future Torments But thereby they make themselves a good Game They are two Omissions that I often meet with in their Discourses I return to the first This Soul loses the use of the soveraign stoical Good so constant and so firm Our fine human Wisdom must here yield and give up her Armes As to the rest they did also consider by the vanity of human Reason that the mixture and association of two so contrary things as mortal and immortal was unimaginable Quippe etenim mortale aeterno jungere unà est Consentire putare fungi mutua posse Desipere est Quid enim diversus esse putandum Aut magis inter se disjunctum discrepitánsque Quà m mortale quod est immortali atque perenni Junctum in concilio saevas tolerare procellas To join the mortal then and the aetern And think they can agree in one concern Is Madness For what things more diff'ring are Unlike betwixt themselves and fit to jarr How can it then be thought that these should bear When thus conjoin'd of Stormes an equal share Moreover they perceiv'd the Soul tending towards death as well as the Body Simul aevo fessa fatiscit Which according to Zeno the Image of Sleep does sufficiently demonstrate to us For he looks upon it as a fainting and
fall of the Soul as well as of the Body Contrahi animum quasi labi putat atque decidere He thinks the Mind is transported and that it slips and falls And what they perceiv'd in some that the Soul maintained its force and vigour to the last gasp of Life they attributed to the variety of Diseases as it is observable in Men at the last Extremity that some retain one Sence and some another one the Hearing and another the Smell without any manner of Defects or Alteration and that there is no so universal a Deprivation that some parts do not remain vigorous and entire Non alio pacto quà m si pes cum dolet agri In nullo caput intera sit fortè dolore As if a sick Man's Foot in pain should be And yet his Head perhaps from Dolours free The sight of our Judgment is to Truth the same that the Owles Eyes are to the Sun says Aristotle By what can we better convince him than by so gross Blindness in so apparent a Light For the contrary Opinion of the immortality of the Soul which Cicero says was first introduc'd by the Testimony of the Authors at least by Pherecides Syrius in the time of King Tullus though others attribute it to Thales and others to others 't is the part of human Science that is treated of with the most doubt and the greatest reservation The most positive Dogmatists are in this point principally to fly to the Refuge of Academy No one knows what Aristotle has established upon this Subject no more than all the Ancients in general who handle it with a wavering Belief Rem gratissimam promittentium magis quà m probantium A thing more acceptable in the Promisers than the Provers He conceals himself in clouds of Words of difficult and unintelligible Sense and has left to those of his Sect as great a Dispute about his Judgment as the matter it self Two things rendred this Opinion plausible to them One that without the immortality of Souls there would be nothing whereon to ground the vain Hopes of Glory which is a Consideration of wonderful Repute in the World The other that it is a very profitable Impression as Plato says that Vices when they escape the Discovery and Cognizance of human Justice are still within the reach of the Divine which will pursue them even after the Death of the Guilty Man is excessively solicitous to prolong his Being and has to the utmost of his Power provided for it Monuments are erected and embalming in use for the Conservation of the Body and glory to preserve the Name He has employed all his Wit and Opinion to the rebuilding of himself impatient of his Form and to prop himself by his Inventions The Soul by reason of its Anxiety and Impotence being unable to stand by it self wanders up and down to seek out Consolations Hopes and Foundations and alien Circumstances to which she adheres and fixes And how light or fantastick soever Invention delivers them to it relies more willingly and with greater Assurance upon them than it self But 't is wonderful to observe how short the most constant and obstinate Maintainers of this just and clear Persuasion of the Immortality of the Soul do fall and how weak their Arguments are when they go about to prove it by human Reason Somnia sunt non docentis sed optantis They are Dreams not of the Teacher but Wisher says one of the Antients By which Testimony Man may know that he owes the Truth he himself finds out to Fortune and Accident since that even then when it is fallen into his Hand he has not wherewith to hold and maintain it and that his Reason has not Force to make use of it All things produc'd by our own Meditation and Understanding whether true or false are subject to Incertitude and Controversy 'T was for the Chastisement of our Pride and for the Instruction of our Misery and Incapacity that God wrought the Perplexity and Confusion at the Tower of Babel Whatever we undertake without his Assistance whatever we see without the Lamp of his Grace is but Vanity and Folly We corrupt the very Essence of Truth which is uniform and constant by our Weakness when Fortune puts it into our Possession What Course soever Man takes of himself God still permits it to come to the same Confusion the Image whereof he so lively represents to us in the just Chastisement wherewith he crusht Nimrod's Presumption and frustrated the vain Attempt of his proud Structure Perdam sapientiam sapientium prudentiam prudentium reprobabe I will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and will bring to nothing the Vnderstanding of the Prudent The Diversity of Idiomes and Languages with which he disturb'd this work what are they other than this infinite and perpetual alteration and discordance of Opinions and Reasons which accompany and confound the vain Building of human Wisdom And 't is to very good effect that they do so For what would hold us if we had but the least grain of Knowledg This Saint has very much oblig'd me Ipsa utilitatis occultatio aut humilitatis exercitatio est aut elationis attritio The very concealment of the Vtility is either an exercise of Humility or a quelling of Presumption To what a pitch of Presumption and Insolence do we raise our Blindness and Folly But to return to my Subject it was truly very good Reason that we should be beholding to God only and to the favour of his Grace for the Truth of so noble a Belief since from his sole Bounty we receive the Fruit of Immortality which consists in the Enjoyment of eternal Beatitude Let us ingeniously confess that God alone has dictated it to us and the Faith For 't is no Lesson of Nature and our own Reason And whoever will enquire into his own Being and Power both within and without without this divine Privilege Whoever shall consider Man impartially and without Flattery will see nothing in him of Efficacy nor any kind of Faculty that relishes of any thing but Death and Earth The more we give and confess to owe and render to God we do it with the greater Christianity That which this Stoick Philosopher says he holds from the fortuitous Consent of the popular Voice had it not been better that he had held it from God Cùm de animorum aeternitate disserimus non leve momentum apud nos habet consensus hominum aut timentium inferos aut colentium Vtor hac publica persuasione When we discourse of the Immortality of Souls the consent of Men that either fear or adore the infernal Power is of no small Advantage I make use of this publick Persuasion Now the weakness of human Arguments upon this Subject is particularly manifested by the fabulous Arguments they have superadded as Consequences of this Opinion to find out of what Condition this Immortality of ours was Let us omit the Stoicks
also do of the extream meanness of some other Minds which I neither am astonish'd at nor yet do misbelieve I very well perceive the turns those great Souls take to raise themselves to such a pitch and admire their Grandeur and those flights that I think the bravest I could be glad to imitate where though I want wing yet my Judgment goes along with them The other Example he introduces of things incredible and wholly fabulous deliver'd by Plutarch is that Agesilaus was fin'd by the Ephori for having wholly engross'd the Hearts and Affections of his Citizens to himself alone And herein I do not see what sign of Falsity is to be found but so it is that Plutarch speaks of things that must needs be better known to him than to us and it was no new thing in Greece to see men punish'd and exil'd for this very thing of being too acceptable to the People witness the Ostracism and Petalism There is yet in this place another Accusation laid against Plutarch which I cannot well digest where he says that he has sincerely coupled the Romans with the Romans and the Greeks amongst themselves but not the Romans with the Greeks witness says he Demosthenes and Cicero Cato and Aristides Sylla and Lysander Marcellus and Pelopidas and Pompey and Agesilaus supposing that he has favour'd the Greeks in giving them so unequal Companions which is really to attaque what in Plutarch is most excellent and most to be commended For in his Parallels which is the most admirable part of all his Works and with which in my Opinion he is himself the most pleas'd the fidelity and sincerity of his Judgements equal their depth and weight He is a Philosopher that teaches us Virtue Let us see whether we cannot defend him from this Reproach of Falsity and Prevarication All that I can imagine could give occasion to this Censure is the great and shining lustre of the Roman Names which we have still before us it does not seem likely to us that Demosthenes could rival the Glory of a Consul Proconsul and Questor of that great Republick but if a man consider the truth of the thing and the men in themselves which is Plutarch's chiefest aim and more to balance their Manners their Natures and Parts than their Fortunes I think contrary to Bodinus that Cicero and the elder Cato come very far short of the men with whom they are compar'd I should sooner for his purpose have chosen the example of the younger Cato compar'd with Phocian for in this couple there would have been a more likely disparity to the Romans Advantage As to Marcellus Sylla and Pompey I very well discern that their Exploits of War are greater and more full of Pomp and Glory than those of the Greeks which Plutarch compares with them but the bravest and most virtuous Actions no more in War than elsewhere are not always the most renown'd I often see the Names of Captains obscur'd by the Splendor of other Names of less desert witness Labienus Ventidius Telesinus and several others And to take it by that were I to complain on the behalf of the Greeks could I not say that Camillus was much less comparable to Themistocles the Gracchi to Agis and Cleones and Numa to Lycurgus But 't is folly to judge of things that have so many Aspects at own view When Plutarch compares them he does not for all that make them equal Who could more learnedly and sincerely have mark'd their distinctions Does he parallel the Victories Feats of Arms the force of their Armies conducted by Pompey and his Triumphs with those of Agesilaus I do not believe says he that Xenophon himself if he were now living though he was allowed to write whatever pleased him to the advantage of Agesilaus would dare to bring them into Comparison Does he speak of parallelling Lysander to Sylla There is says he no Comparison either in the number of Victories or in the hazard of Naval Engagements c. This is not to derogate from the Romans for having only simply nam'd them with the Greeks he can have done them no injury what disparity soever there may be betwixt them and Plutarch does not entirely oppose them to one another there is no preference in general he only compares the pieces and circumstances one after another and gives of every one a particular and separate Judgement wherefore if any one would convince him of Partiality he ought to pick out some one of those particular Judgements or say in general that he was mistaken in comparing such a Greek to such a Roman when there were others more fit and better resembling to parallel him to CHAP. XXXIII The Story of Spurina PHilosophy thinks she has not ill employed her Talent when she has given the sovereignty of the Soul and the authority of restraining our Appetites to Reason Amongst which they who judge that there is none more violent than those which spring from Love have this Opinion also that they seize both of Body and Soul and possess the whole Man so that even Health it self depends upon them and Medicine is sometimes constrained to pimp for them But a man might on the contrary also say that the mixture of the Body brings an abatement and weakning for such desires are subject to Saciety and capable of material Remedies Many being determined to rid their Soul from the continual Alarms of this Appetite have made use of Incision and Amputation of the rebelling Members Others have subdued their force and ardour by the frequent application of cold things as Snow and Vinegar The Sack-cloths of our Ancestors were for this purpose which is a Cloth woven of Horses Hair of which some of them made Shirts and others Girdles to torture and correct their Reins A Prince not long ago told me that in his Youth upon a solemn Festival in the Court of King Francis the First where every Body was very finely dress'd he would needs put on his Father's Hair Shirt which was still kept in the House but how great soever his Devotion was he had not patience to wear it till Night and was sick a long time after adding withall that he did not think there could be any youthful heat so fierce that the use of this Receipt would not mortifie and yet perhaps he never essay'd the most violent for Experience shews us that such Emotions are often seen under rude and slovenly Cloths and that a Hair Shirt does not always render those Chaste that wear it Xenocrates proceeded with greater severity in this Affair for his Disciples to make tryal of his Continency having slipt Lais that beautiful and famous Curtezan into his Bed quite naked excepting the arms of her Beauty and her wanton Allurements her Philters finding that in the despite of his Reason and philosophical Rules his unruly flesh began to mutiny he caus'd those Members of his to be burn'd that he found consenting to this Rebellion Whereas the Passions
that Prudence and Love cannot live together 'T is a vain Employment 't is true indecent shameful and unlawful but to carry it on after this manner I look upon it as wholesome and proper to enliven a drowsie Soul and to rouze up a heavy Body And as an experienc'd Physician I would prescribe it to a man of my form and condition as soon as any other Recipe whatever to rouze and keep him in vigour till well advanc'd in years and to defer the approaches of Age whilst we are but in the Suburbs and that the Pulse yet beats Dum nova canities dum prima recta senectus Dum superest Lachesi quod torqueat pedibus me Porto meis nullo dextram subeunte bacillo Whilst Age strait-shouldred hath some youth in it Whilst my hair's gray whilst there 's a remnant yet For Lachesis to spin whilst I walk on My own Legs need no staff to lean upon We have need to be trinckled and tickled by some such niping incitation as this Do but observe what Youth Vigour and Gayety it inspir'd Anacreon withall And Socrates who was then older than I speaking of an amorous Object Leaning said he my Shoulder to her Shoulder and my Head to hers as we were reading together in a Book I felt without dissembling a sudden sting in my Shoulder like the biting of a Flea which I still felt above five days after and a continual itching crept into my Heart What only an accidental touch and of a Shoulder to heat and alter a Soul mortified and enerved by Age and the strictest liver of all Mankind And pray why not Socrates was a Man and would neither be nor be like any other thing Philosophy does not contend against natural Pleasures provided they be moderate and only preaches Moderation not a total abstinence The power of resistance is employ'd against those that are adulterate and introduc'd by Innovation Philosophy says that the Appetites of the Body ought not to be augmented by the Mind and ingeniously warns us not to stir up Hunger by Saturity not to stuff instead of filling the Belly to avoid all Fruition that may bring us to want and all Meats and Drinks that procure Thirst and Hunger As she does in the service of Love she there prescribes us to take such an object as may only simply satisfie the Bodies real need and may not stir the Soul which ought only barely to follow and assist the Body without mixing in the affair But have I not reason to believe that these Precepts which nevertheless in my opinion are elsewhere very severe are only directed to a Body in its best and best performing plight and that in a Body broken with Age as in a weak Stomach 't is excusable to warm and support it by Art and by the mediation of the Fancy to restore the Appetite and cheerfulness it has lost in it self May we not say that there is nothing in us during this earthly Prison that is purely either corporeal or spiritual and that we injuriously break up a man alive and that it seems but reasonable that we should carry our selves as favourably at least against the use of Pleasure as we do against that of Pain It was for example vehement even to perfection in the Souls of the Saints by Repentance the Body had there naturally a share by the right of Union and yet might have but little part in the Cause and yet are they not contented that it should barely follow and assist the afflicted Soul They have afflicted it by it self with grievous and peculiar torments to the end that by emulation of one another the Soul and Body might plunge man into misery by so much more salutiferous as it is more painful and severe In like manner is it not injustice in bodily pleasures to subdue and keep under the Soul and say that it must therein be drag'd along as to some enforc'd and servile obligation and necessity 'T is rather her part to botch and cherish them there to present her self and to invite them the Authority of Ruling belonging to her as it is also her part in my opinion in Pleasures that are proper to her to inspire and infuse into the Body all the resentment it is capable of and to study how to make it pleasant and useful to it For it is good reason as they say that the Body should not pursue its Appetites to the prejudice of the Mind but why is it not also reason that the Mind should not pursue hers to the prejudice of the Body I have no other Passion to keep me in breath What Avarice Ambition Quarrels and Suits do to others who like me have no particular Vocation Love would much more commodiously do it would restore to me Vigilancy Sobriety Grace and the care of my Person It would re-assure my countenance that the sour looks those deform'd and to be pitied sour looks of old Age might not step in to disgrace it would again put me upon sound and wise studies by which I might render my self more lov'd and esteem'd clearing my mind of the despair of it self and of its Use and redintigrate it to it self would divert me from a thousand troublesome thoughts and a thousand melancholick Humours that Idleness and the ill posture of our Health loads us withall at such an Age would warm again in Dreams at least the Blood that Nature has given over would hold up the Chin and a little stretch out the Nerves the vigours and gayety of Life of that poor man who is going full drive toward his ruine But I very well understand that it is a commodity very hard to recover by Weakness and long Experience our taste is become more delicate and nice we ask most when we bring least and will have the most choice when we least deserve to be accepted and knowing our selves for what we are we are less confident and more distrustful nothing can assure us of being belov'd considering our condition and theirs I am out of countenance to see my self in company with those young wanton creatures Cujus in indomito constantior inguine nervus Quam nova collibus arbor inhaeret to what end should we go insinuate our misery with their gay and spritely humour Possint ut juvenes visere fervidi Multo non sine risu Dilapsam in cineres facem That Youth inflamed may behold Not without laughter and much scorn A burning Torch to Ashes worn They have Strength and Reason on their side let us give way we are most able to make good our ground And these blossoms of springing Beauty suffer not themselves to be handled by such benumm'd hands nor be dealt with meer material means For as the old Philosopher answer'd one that jeer'd him because he could not gain the favour of a young Girl he made love to Friend the hook will not stick in such soft cheese It is a Commerce that requires
of Opposition Certainly had it been capable of any manner of Moderation or Society it is to be believ'd that in the Sack and Desolation of Thebes to see so many valiant Men lost and totally destitute of any further Defence cruelly massacred before his Eyes would have appeas'd it where there were above six thousand put to the Sword of which not one was seen to fly or heard to cry out for Quarter but on the contrary every one running here and there to seek out and to provoke the Victorious Enemy to help them to an honourable end Not one who did not to his last Gasp yet endeavour to revenge himself and with all the Arms of a brave Despair to sweeten his own Death in the Death of an Enemy Yet did their Vertue create no Pity and the length of one day was not enough to satiate the Thirst of the Conquerours Revenge but the Slaughter continued to the last Drop of Blood that was capable of being shed and stop'd not till it met with none but naked and impotent Persons old Men Women and Children of them to carry away to the number of thirty thousand Slaves CHAP. II. Of Sorrow NO Man living is more free from this Passion than I who neither like it in my self nor admire it in others and yet generally the World I know not why is pleas'd to grace it with a particular Esteem endeavouring to make us believe That Wisdom Vertue and Conscience shroud themselves under this grave and affected Appearance Foolish and sordid Disguise The Italians however under the Denomination of Vn Tristo decipher a clandestine Nature a dangerous and ill-natur'd Man and with good reason it being a Quality always hurtful always idle and vain and as cowardly mean and base by the Stoicks expresly and particularly forbidden their Sages But the Story nevertheless says that Psammenitus King of Egypt being defeated and taken Prisoner by Cambyses King of Persia seeing his own Daughter pass by him in a wretched Habit with a Bucket to draw Water though hi◠Friends about him were so concerned as to break out into Tears and Lamentations at the miserable sight yet he himself remain'd unmov'd without uttering a Word of Discontent with his Eyes fix'd upon the Ground and seeing moreover his Son immediately after led to Execution still maintain'd the same Gravity and Indifference till spying at last one of his Domesticks drag'd away amongst the Captives he could then hold no longer but fell to tearing his Hair and beating his Breast with all the other Extravagancies of a wild and desperate Sorrow A Story that may very fitly be coupled with another of the same kind of a late Prince of our own Nation who being at Trent and having News there brought him of the Death of his elder Brother but a Brother on whom depended the whole Support and Honour of his House and soon after of that of a younger Brother the second Hope of his Family and having withstood these two Assaults with an exemplary Resolution one of his Servants hapning a few days after to dye he suffer'd his Constancy to be overcome by this last Accident and parting with his Courage so abandon'd himself to Sorrow and Mourning that some from thence were forward to conclude that he was only touch'd to the Quick by this last Stroak of Fortune but in truth it was that being before brim full of Grief the least Addition overflow'd the Bounds of all Patience Which might also be said of the former Example did not the Story proceed to tell us That Cambyses asking Psammenitus Why not being mov'd at the Calamity of his Son and Daughter he should with so great Impatience bear the Misfortune of his Friend It is answer'd he because this last Affliction was only to be manifested by Tears the two first exceeding all manner of Expression And peradventure something like this might be working in the Fancy of the ancient Painter who being in the Sacrifice of Iphigenia to represent the Sorrow of the Assistants proportionably to the several Degrees of Interest every one had in the Death of this fair innocent Virgin and having in the other Figures laid out the utmost Power of his Art when he came to that of her Father he drew him with a Veil over his Face meaning thereby that no kind of Countenance was capable of expressing such a degree of Sorrow Which is also the reason why the Poets feign the miserable Mother Niobe having first lost seven Sons and successively as many Daughters to be at last transform'd into a Rock Diriguisse malis Whom Grief alone Had Pow'r to stiffen into Stone Thereby to express that melancholick dumb and deaf Stupidity which benums all our Faculties when opprest with Accidents greater than we are able to bear and indeed the Violence and Impression of an excessive Grief must of necessity astonish the Soul and wholly deprive her of her ordinary Functions as it happens to every one of us who upon any sudden Alarm of very ill News find our selves surpriz'd stupified and in a manner depriv'd of all Power of Motion till the Soul beginning to vent it self in Sighs and Tears seems a little to free and disingage it self from the sudden Oppression and to have obtain'd some room to work it self out at greater Liberty Et via vix tandem voci laxata dolore est Yet scarce at last by strugling Grief a Gate Unbolted is for Sighs to sally at In the War that Ferdinand made upon the Widdow of King John of Hungary about Buda a Man at Arms was particularly taken notice of by every one for his singular gallant Behaviour in a certain Encounter unknown highly commended and as much lamented being left dead upon the Place but by none so much as by Raisciac a German Lord who was infinitely enamour'd of so unparalell'd a Vertue When the Body being brought off and the Count with the common Curiosity coming to view it the Arms were no sooner taken off but he immediately knew him to be his own Son A thing that added a second Blow to the Compassion of all the Beholders only he without uttering a Word or turning away his Eyes from the woful Object stood fixtly contemplating the Body of his Son till the Vehemency of Sorrow having overcome his Vital Spirits made him sink down stone-dead to the Ground Chi puo dir com' egli arde è in picciol fuoco What Tongue is able to proclaim How his Soul melted in the gentle Flame say the Inamorato's when they would represent an insupportable Passion misero quod omnes Eripit sensus mihi Nam simul te Lesbia aspexi nihil est super mi Quod loquar amens Lingua sed torpet tenuis sub artus Flamma dimanat sonitu suopte Tinniunt aures gemina teguntur Lumina nocte all-conquering Lesbia thine Eyes Have ravish'd from me all my Faculties At the first Glance of their victorious Ray I was so struck I knew not
would steal aside to make Water as religiously as a Virgin and was as shy to discover either to his Physician or any other whatever those Parts that we are accustomed to conceal and I my self who have so impudent a way of Talking am nevertheless naturally so modest this way that unless at the Importunity of Necessity or Pleasure I very rarely and unwillingly communicate to the Sight of any either those Parts or Actions that Custom orders us to conceal wherein I also suffer more Constraint than I conceive is very well becoming a Man especially of my Profession but he nourish'd this modest Humour to such a degree of Superstition as to give express Orders in his last Will that they should put him on Drawers so soon as he should be dead to which methinks he would have done well to have added that he should have been hood-wink'd too that put them on The Charge that Cyrus left with his Children that neither they nor any other should either see or touch his Body after the Soul was departed from it I attribute to some superstitious Devotion of his both his Historian and Himself amongst other great Qualities having strew'd the whole Course of their Lives with a singular Respect to Religion I was by no means pleas'd with a Story was told me by a Man of very great Quality of a Relation of mine and one who had given a very good Account of himself both in Peace and War that coming to dye in a very old Age of an excessive Pain of the Stone he spent the last Hours of his Life in an extraordinary Solitude about ordering the Ceremony of his Funeral pressing all the Men of Condition who came to see him to engage their Word to attend him to his Grave importuning this very Prince who came to visit him at his last Gasp with a most earnest Supplication that he would order his Family to be assisting there and withall representing before him several Reasons and Examples to prove that it was a Respect due to a Man of his Condition and seem'd to dye content having obtain'd this Promise and appointed the Method and Order of this Funeral Parade I have seldom heard of so long-liv'd a Vanity Another though contrary Solitude of which also I do not want domestick Example seems to be somewhat a Kin to this That a Man shall cudgel his Brains at the last Moments of his Life to contrive his Obsequies to so particular and unusual a Parcimony as to conclude it in the sordid expence of one single Servant with a Candle and Lanthorn And yet I see this Humour commended and the Appointment of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus who forbad his Heirs to bestow upon his Hearse even the common Ceremonies in use upon such Occasions Is it yet Temperance and Frugality to avoid the Expence and Pleasure of which the use and knowledge is imperceptible to us See here an easie and cheap Reformation If Instruction were at all necessary in this case I should be of Opinion that in this as in all other Actions of Life the Ceremony and Expence should be regulated by the Ability of the Person deceas'd and the Philosopher Lycon prudently order'd his Executors to dispose of his Body where they should think most fit and as to his Funerals to order them neither too superfluous nor too mean For my part I should wholly refer the ordering of this Ceremony to Custom and shall when the time comes accordingly leave it to their Discretion to whose Lot it shall fall to do me that last Office Totus hic locus est contemnendus in nobis non negligendus in nostris The Place of our Sepulture is wholly to be contemn'd by us but not to be neglected by our Friends and it was a holy Saying of a Saint Curatio funeris conditio Sepulturae pompa Exequiarum magis sunt vivorum solatia quà m subsidia mortuorum The Care of Funerals the Place of Sepulture and the Pomps of Exequies are rather Consolations to the Living than any Benefit to the Dead Which made Socrates answer Criton who at the Hour of his Death ask'd him how he would be buried How you will said he If I could concern my self further than the Present about this Affair I should be most tempted as the greatest Satisfaction of this kind to imitate those who in their Life-time entertain themselves with the Ceremony of their own Obsequies before-hand and are pleas'd with viewing their own Monument and beholding their own dead Countenance in Marble Happy are they who can gratifie their Senses by Insensibility and live by their Death I am ready to conceive an implacable Hatred against all Democracy and Popular Government though I cannot but think it the most natural and equitable of all others so oft as I call to mind the inhumane Injustice of the People of Athens who without Remission or once vouchsafing to hear what they had to say for themselves put to death their brave Captains newly return'd triumphant from a Naval Victory they had obtained over the Lacedaemonians near the Arginusian Isles the most bloody and obstinate Engagement that ever the Greeks fought at Sea for no other Reason but that they rather followed their Blow and pursued the Advantages prescribed them by the Rule of War than that they would stay to gather up and bury their Dead an Execution that is yet rendred more odious by the Behaviour of Diomedon who being one of the condemn'd and a Man of most eminent both politick and military Vertue after having heard their Sentence advancing to speak no Audience till then having been allowed instead of laying before them his own Innocency or the Impiety of so cruel an Arrest only express'd a Sollitude for his Judges Preservation beseeching the Gods to convert this Sentence to their own Good and praying that for neglecting to pay those Vows which he and his Companions had done which he also acquainted them with in Acknowledgment of so glorious a Success they might not pull down the Indignation of the Gods upon them and so without more Words went couragiously to his Death But Fortune a few Years after punishing them in their kind made them see the Error of their Cruelty for Chabrias Captain-General of their Naval Forces having got the better of Pollis Admiral of Sparta about the Isle of Naxos totally lost the Fruits of his Success and Content with his Victory of very great Importance to their Affairs not to incur the danger of this Example and lose a few Bodies of his dead Friends that were floating in the Sea gave opportunity to a world of living Enemies to sail away in Safety who afterwards made them pay dear for this unseasonable Superstition Quaeris quae jaceas post obitum loco Quae non nata jacent Dost ask where thou shalt lye when dead With those that never Being had This other restores the sense of Repose to a Body without a Soul Neque sepulcrum quo
envious of the Grandeurs here below Vsque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam Obterit pulcros Fasces saevasque secures Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur By which it does appear a Power unseen Rome's awful Fasces and her Axes keen Spurns under foot and plainly does despise Of humane Power the vain Formalities And it should seem also that Fortune sometimes lies in wait to surprize the last Hour of our Lives to shew the Power she has in a Moment to overthrow what she was so many Years in building making us cry out with Laberius Nimirum hac die una plus vixi mihi quà m vivendum fuit I have liv'd longer by this one day than I ought to have done And in this Sense this good Advice of Solon may reasonably be taken but he being a Philosopher with which sort of Men the Favours and Disgraces of Fortune stand for nothing either to the making a Man happy or unhappy and with whom Grandeurs and Powers Accidents of Quality are upon the Matter indifferent I am apt to think that he had some further Aim and that his meaning was that the very Felicity of Life it self which depends upon the Tranquillity and Contentment of a well-descended Spirit and the Resolution and Assurance of a well-order'd Soul ought never to be attributed to any Man till he has first been seen to play the last and doubtless the hardest act of his Part because there may be Disguise and Dissimulation in all the rest where these fine Philosophical Discourses are only put on and where Accidents do not touch us to the Quick they give us leisure to maintain the same sober Gravity but in this last Scene of Death there is no more counterfeiting we must speak plain and must discover what there is of pure and clean in the bottom Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Ejiciuntur eripitur persona manet res Then then at last Truth issues from the Heart The Vizor's gone we act our own true part Wherefore at this last all the other Actions of our Life ought to be tryed and sifted 'T is the Master-day 't is the day that is judge of all the rest 'T is the Day says one of the Ancients that ought to be judge of all my foregoing Years To Death do I refer the Essay of the Fruit of all my Studies We shall then see whether my Discourses came only from my Mouth or from my Heart I have seen many by their Death give a good or an ill Repute to their whole Life Scipio the Father-in-law of Pompey the great in dying well wip'd away the ill Opinion that till then every one had conceiv'd of him Epaminondas being ask'd which of the three he had in greatest esteem Chabrias Iphicrates or himself You must first see us die said he before that Question can be resolv'd and in truth he would infinitely wrong that great Man who would weigh him without the Honour and Grandeur of his End God Almighty has order'd all things as it has best pleas'd him But I have in my time seen three of the most execrable Persons that ever I knew in all manner of abominable living and the most infamous to boot who all dyed a very regular Death and in all Circumstances compos'd even to Perfection There are brave and fortunate Deaths I have seen Death cut the Thread of the Progress of a prodigious Advancement and in the height and Flower of its encrease of a certain Person with so glorious an end that in my Opinion his Ambitious and generous Designs had nothing in them so high and great as their Interruption and he arriv'd without compleating his course at the Place to which his Ambition pretended with greater Glory than he could himself either hope or desire and anticipated by his Fall the Name and Power to which he aspir'd by perfecting his Career In the Judgment I make of another man's Life I always observe how he carried himself at his Death and the principal Concern I have for my own is that I may dye handsomly that is patiently and without noise CHAP. XIX That to study Philosophy is to learn to dye CIcero says That to study Philosophy is nothing but to prepare a Man's self to dye The reason of which is because Study and Contemplation do in some sort withdraw from us and deprive us of our Souls and employ it separately from the Body which is a kind of Learning to dye and a resemblance of Death or else because all the Wisdom and reasoning in the World does in the end conclude in this Point to teach us not to fear to dye And to say the Truth either our Reason does grosly abuse us or it ought to have no other Aim but our Contentment only nor to endeavour any thing but in Sum to make us live well and as the Holy Scripture says at our Ease All the Opinions of the World agree in this That Pleasure is our end though we make use of divers means to attain unto it they would otherwise be rejected at the first motion for who would give Ear to him that should propose Affliction and Misery for his end The Controversies and Disputes of the Philosophical Sects upon this Point are merely verbal Transcurramus solertissimas nugas Let us skip over those learned and subtle Fooleries and Trifles there is more in them of Opposition and Obstinacy than is consistent with so sacred a Profession but what kind of Person soever Man takes upon him to personate he over-mixes his own part with it and let the Philosophers all say what they will the main thing at which we all aim even in Virtue it self is Pleasure It pleases me to rattle in their Ears this Word which they so nauseate to hear and if it signifie some supream Pleasure and excessive Delight it is more due to the Assistance of Vertue than to any other Assistance whatever This Delight for being more gay more sinewy more robust and more manly is only to be more seriously voluptuous and we ought to give it the Name of Pleasure as that which is more benign gentle and natural and not that of Vigour from which we have deriv'd it the other more mean and sensual part of Pleasure if it could deserve this fair Name it ought to be upon the Account of Concurrence and not of Priviledge I find it less exempt from Traverses and Inconveniences than Vertue it self and besides that the Enjoyment is more momentary fluid and frail it has its Watchings Fasts and Labours even to Sweat and Blood and moreover has particular to it self so many several sorts of sharp and wounding Passions and so stupid a Saciety attending it as are equal to the severest Penance And we mistake to think that Difficulties should serve it for a Spur and a seasoning to its Sweetness as in Nature one Contrary is quickned by another and to say when we
their Tables Dishes Cups and all And as the Egyptians after their Feasts were wont to present the Company with a great Image of Death by one that cry'd out to them Drink and be merry for such shalt thou be when thou art dead so it is my Custom to have Death not only in my Imagination but continually in my Mouth neither is there any thing of which I am so inquisitive and delight to inform my self as the manner of mens Deaths their Words Looks and Gestures nor any places in History I am so intent upon and it is manifest enough by my crowding in Examples of this kind that I have a particular fancy for that Subject If I were a Writer of Books I would compile a Register with a Comment of the various Deaths of men and it could not but be useful for who should teach men to dye would at the same time teach them to live Dicearchus made one to which he gave that Title but it was design'd for another and less profitable end Peradventure some one may object and say that the pain and terror of dying indeed does so infinitely exceed all manner of imagination that the best Fencer will be quite out of his Play when it comes to the Push but let them say what they will to premeditate is doubtless a very great Advantage and besides is it nothing to come so far at least without any visible Disturbance or Alteration But moreover Nature her self does assist and encourage us If the Death be sudden and violent we have not leisure to fear if otherwise I find that as I engage further in my Disease I naturally enter into a certain loathing and disdain of Life I find I have much more ado to digest this Resolution of dying when I am well in Health than when sick languishing of a Fever and by how much I have less to do with the Commodities of Life by reason I even begin to lose the use and Pleasure of them by so much I look upon Death with less Terror and Amazement which makes me hope that the further I remove from the first and the nearer I approach to the latter I shall sooner strike a Bargain and with less Unwillingness exchange the one for the other And as I have experimented in other Occurrences that as Caesar says things often appear greater to us at distance than near at hand I have found that being well I have had Diseases in much greater Horror than when really afflicted with them The Vigour wherein I now am and the Jollity and Delight wherein I now live make the contrary Estate appear in so great a disproportion to my present condition that by imagination I magnifie and make those inconveniences twice greater than they are and apprehend them to be much more troublesome than I find them really to be when they lie the most heavy upon me and I hope to find Death the same Let us but observe in the ordinary changes and Declinations our Constitutions daily suffer how Nature deprives us of all sight and sense of our bodily decay What remains to an old man of the vigour of his Youth and better days Heu senibus vitae portio quanta manet Alas to men of youthful Heat bereft How small a Portion of Life is left Caesar to an old weather-beaten Souldier of his Guards who came to ask him leave that he might kill himself taking notice of his wither'd Body and decrepid motion pleasantly answer'd Thou fanciest then that thou art yet alive Should a man fall into the Aches and impotencies of Age from a spritely and vigorous Youth on the sudden I do not think Humanity capable of enduring such a change but Nature leading us by the hand an easie and as it were an insensible pace step by step conducts us to that miserable condition and by that means makes it familiar to us so that we perceive not nor are sensible of the stroak then when our Youth dies in us though it be really a harder Death than the final Dissolution of a languishing Body which is only the Death of old Age forasmuch as the Fall is not so great from an uneasie Being to none at all as it is from a spritely and florid Being to one that is unweildy and painful The Body when bow'd beyond its natural spring of Strength has less Force either to rise with or support a Burthen and it is with the Soul the same and therefore it is that we are to raise her up firm and erect against the Power of this Adversary for as it is impossible she should ever be at rest or at Peace within her self whilst she stands in fear of it so if she once can assure her self she may boast which is a thing as it were above Humane Condition that it is impossible that Disquiet Anxiety or Fear or any other Disturbance should inhabit or have any Place in her Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus A Soul well settled is not to be shook With an incensed Tyrant's threatning Look Nor can loud Auster once that Heart dismay The ruffling Prince of stormy Adria Nor yet th' advanced hand of mighty Jove Though charg'd with Thunder such a Temper move She is then become Sovereign of all her Lusts and Passions Mistress of Necessity Shame Poverty and all the other Injuries of Fortune Let us therefore as many of us as can get this Advantage which is the true and sovereign Liberty here on Earth and that fortifies us wherewithall to defie Violence and Injustice and to contemn Prisons and Chains in Manicis Compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo Ipse Deus simul atque volam me solvet opinor Hoc sentit moriar mors ultima linea verum est With rugged Chains I 'll load thy Hands and Feet And to a surly Keeper thee commit Why let him shew his worst of Cruelty God will I think for asking set me free Ay but he thinks I 'll dye that Comfort brings For Death 's the utmost Line of Humane things Our very Religion it self has no surer humane Foundation than the Contempt of Death Not only the Argument of Reason invites us to it for why should we fear to lose a thing which being lost can never be miss'd or lamented But also seeing we are threatned by so many sorts of Death is it not infinitely worse eternally to fear them all than once to undergo one of them And what matter is it when it shall happen since it is once inevitable To him that told Socrates the thirty Tyrants have sentenc'd thee to Death and Nature them said he What a ridiculous thing it is to trouble and afflict our selves about taking the only Step that is to deliver us from all Misery and Trouble As our Birth brought us the Birth of all things so in our Death is the Death of
discoursing with his Patient about the method of his Cure he told him that one thing which would be very conducing to it was to give me such Occasion to be pleased with his Company that I might come often to see him by which means and by fixing his Eyes upon the Freshness of my Complexion and his Imagination upon the Sprightliness and Vigour that glowed in my Youth and possessing all his Senses with the flourishing Age wherein I then was his Habit of Body might peradventure be amended but he forgot to say that mine at the same time might be made worse Gallus Vibius so long cudgell'd his Brains to find out the Essence and Motions of Folly till by the Inquisition in the end he went directly out of his Wits and to such a Degree that he could never after recover his Judgment and he might brag that he was become a Fool by too much Wisdom Some there are who thorough Fear prevent the Hangman like him whose Eyes being unbound to have his Pardon read to him was found stark dead upon the Scaffold by the Stroak of Imagination We start tremble turn pale and blush as we are variously mov'd by Imagination and being a-bed feel our Bodies agitated with its Power to that degree as even sometimes to Expiration And boyling Youth when fast asleep grows so warm with Fancy as in a Dream to satisfie amorous Desires Vt quasi transactis saepe omnibus rebus profundant Fluminis ingentes fluctus vestemque cruentent Who fancy gulling Lies enflamed Mind Lays his Loves Tribute there where not design'd Although it be no new thing to see Horns grown in a Night on the Fore-head of one that had none when he went to Bed notwithstanding what befell Cyppus a noble Roman is very memorable who having one day been a very delighted Spectator of a Bull-baiting and having all the night dreamt that he had Horns on his Head did by the Force of Imagination really cause them to grow there Passion made the Son of Croesus to speak who was born dumb by that means supplying him with so necessary a Faculty which Nature had deny'd him And Antiochus fell into a Fever enflam'd with the Beauty of Stratonissa too deeply imprinted in his Soul Pliny pretends to have seen Lucius Crossitius who from a Woman was turn'd into a Man upon her very Wedding-day Pontanus and others report the like Metamorphosis that in these latter days have hapned in Italy and through the vehement Desire of him and his Mother Vota puer solvit quae foemina voverat Iphis. Iphis a Boy the Vow defray'd That he had promis'd when a Maid My self passing by Vitry le Francois a Town in Champagne saw a Man the Bishop of Soissons had in Confirmation call'd German whom all the Inhabitanrs of the Place had known to be a Girl till two and twenty Years of Age call'd Mary He was at the time of my being there very full of Beard Old and not Married who told us that by straining himself in a Leap his male Instruments came out and the Maids of that Place have to this day a Song wherein they advise one another not to take too great Strides for fear of being turn'd into Men as Mary German was It is no wonder if this sort of Accident frequently happen for if Imagination have any Power in such things it is so continually and vigorously bent upon this Subject that to the end it may not so often relapse into the same Thought and Violence of Desire it were better once for all to give these young Wenches the Things they long for Some stick not to attribute the Scars of King Dagobert and St. Francis to the Force of Imagination and it is said that by it Bodies will sometimes be removed from their Places and Celsus tells us of a Priest whose Soul would be ravish'd into such an Extasie that the Body would for a long time remain without Sense or Respiration St. Augustine makes mention of another who upon the hearing of any lamentable or doleful Cries would presently fall into a Swoon and be so far out of himself that it was in vain to call hollow in his Ears pinch or burn him till he voluntarily came to himself and then he would say that he had heard Voices as it were a-far off and did feel when they pinch'd and burn'd him and to prove that this was no obstinate Dissimulation in defiance of his Sense of Feeling it was manifest that all the while he had neither Pulse nor Breathing 'T is very probable that Visions Enchantments and all extraordinary Effects of that Nature derive their Credit principally from the Power of Imagination working and making its chiefest Impression upon vulgar and more easie Souls whose Belief is so strangely impos'd upon as to think they see what they do not I am not satisfied and make a very great Question Whether those pleasant Ligatures with which this Age of ours is so fetter'd that there is almost no other Talk are not mere voluntary Impressions of Apprehension and fear for I know by experience in the Case of a particular Friend of mine one for whom I can be as Responsible as for my self and a Man that cannot possibly fall under any manner of Suspition of insufficiency and as little of being enchanted who having heard a Companion of his make a Relation of an unusual Frigidity that surpriz'd him at a very unseasonable time being afterwards himself engag'd upon the same Account the Horror of the former Story on a sudden so strangely possess'd his Imagination that he ran the same Fortune the other had done and from that time forward the scurvy Remembrance of his Disaster running in his Mind and tyrannizing over him was extreamly subject to Relapse into the same Misfortune He found some Remedy however for this Inconvenience by himself franckly confessing and declaring before-hand to the Party with whom he was to have to do the Subjection he lay under and the Infirmity he was subject to by which means the Contention of his Soul was in some sort appeas'd and knowing that now some such Misbehaviour was expected from him the Restraint upon those Faculties grew less and he less suffer'd by it and afterwards at such times as he could be in no such Apprehension as not being about any such Act his Thoughts being then disengag'd and free and his Body being in its true and natural Estate by causing those Parts to be handled and communicated to the Knowledge of others he was at last totally freed from that vexatious Infirmity After a Man has once done a Woman right he is never after in danger of misbehaving himself with that Person unless upon the account of a manifest and excusable Weakness Neither is this Disaster to be fear'd but in Adventures where the Soul is over-extended with Desire or Respect and especially where we meet with an unexpected Opportunity that requires a sudden and quick Dispatch and
and finding these would do no good was fain to return to the old way A Woman fancying she had swallow'd a pin in a piece of Bread cry'd out of an intollerable pain in her Throat where she thought she felt it stick but an ingenious Fellow that was brought to her seeing no outward Tumour nor alteration supposing it to be only Conceit taken at some Crust of Bread that had hurt her as it went down caus'd her to vomit and cunningly unseen threw a crooked Pin into the Bason which the Woman no sooner saw but believing she had cast it up she presently found her self eas'd of her pain I my self knew a Gentleman who having treated a great deal of good Company at his house three or four dayes after brag'd in jest for there was no such thing that he had made them eat of a bak'd Cat at which a young Gentlewoman who had been at the Feast took such a horror that falling into a violent vomiting and a Fever there was no possible means to save her Even brute Beasts are also subject to the force of Imagination as well as we as is seen by Dogs who dye of grief for the loss of their Masters and are seen to quest tremble and start as Horses will kick and whinney in their sleep Now all this may be attributed to the affinity and relation betwixt the Souls and Bodies of Brutes but 't is quite another thing when the Imagination works upon the Souls of rational men and not only to the prejudice of their own particular Bodies but of others also And as an infected Body communicates its Malady to those that approach or live near it as we see in the Plague the small Pox and sore Eyes that run through whole Families and Cities Dum spectant oculi laesos laeduntur ipsi Multáque corporibus transitione nocent Viewing sore eyes eyes to be sore are brought And many ills are by transition caught So the Imagination being vehemently agitated darts out Infection capable of offending the stranger Object The Ancients had an opinion of certain Women of Scythia that being animated and inrag'd against any one they kill'd them only with their looks Tortoises and Ostriches hatch their Eggs with only looking on them which infers that their Eyes have in them some ejaculative vertue And the eyes of Witches are said to be dangerous and hurtful Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos What Eye it is I do not know My tender Lambs bewitches so Magicians are no very good Authority for me but we experimentally see that Women impart the Marks of their Fancy to the Children they carry in their Wombs witness her that was brought to Bed of a Moor and there was presented to Charles the Emperour and King of Bohemia a Girl from about Pisa all over rough and cover'd with Hair whom her Mother said to be so conceiv'd by reason of a Picture of St. John Baptist that hung within the Curtains of her Bed It is the same with Beasts witness Jacob's ring-streaked and spotted Goats and Sheep and the Hares and Partridges that the Snow turns white upon the Mountains There was at my House a little while ago a Cat seen watching a Bird upon the top of a Tree who for some time mutually fixing their Eyes upon one another the Bird at last let her self fall as dead into the Cats Claws either dazled and astonish'd by the Force of her own Imagination or drawn by some attractive Power of the Cat. Such as are addicted to the Pleasures of the Field have I make no question heard the Story of the Faulconer who having earnestly fix'd his Eyes upon a Kite in the Ayr lay'd a Wager that he would bring her down with the sole Power of Sight and did so as it was said for the Tales I borrow I charge upon the Consciences of those from whom I have them The Discourses are my own and found themselves upon the Proofs of Reason not of Experience to which every one has Liberty to add his own Examples and who has none the Number and Varieties of Accidents consider'd let him not forbear to believe that these I set down are enough and if I do not apply them well let some other do it for me And also in the Subjects of which I treat viz. of our Manners and Motions the Testimonies and Instances I produce how fabulous soever provided they are possible serve as well as the true whether it has really happen'd or no at Rome or at Paris to Peter or John 't is still within the Verge of Possibility and humane Capacity which serves me to good use and supplies me with Variety in the things I write I see and make my Advantage of it as well in Shadow as in Substance and amongst the various Examples I every where meet with in History I cull out the most rare and memorable to fit my own Turn There are some Authors whose only end and Design it is to give an Account of things that have hapned mine if I could arrive unto it should be to deliver what may come to pass There is a just Liberty allow'd in the Schools of supposing and contriving Simile's when they are at a Loss for them in their own Reading I do not however make any use of that Priviledge and as to that Affair in superstitious Religion surpass all Historical Authority In the Examples which I here bring in of what I have heard read done or said I have forbid my self to dare to alter even the most light and indifferent Circumstances my Conscience does not falsifie one Tittle what my Ignorance may do I cannot say And this it is that makes me sometimes enter into Dispute with my own Thoughts whether or no a Divine or a Philosopher Men of so exact and tender Wisdom and Conscience are fit to write History for how can they stake their Reputation upon the Publick Faith how be responsible for the Opinions of Men they do not know and with what Assurance deliver their Conjectures for current Pay Of Actions perform'd before their own Eyes wherein several Persons were Actors they would be unwilling to give Evidence upon Oath before a Judge and cannot be so familiarly and thoroughly acquainted with any for whose Intentions they would become absolute Caution For my part I think it less hazardous to write things past than present by how much the Writer is only to give an Account of things every one knows he must of necessity borrow upon Trust. I am sollicited to write the Affairs of my own Time by some who fancy I look upon them with an Eye less blinded with Prejudice or Partiality than another and have a clearer Insight into them by reason of the free Access Fortune has given me to the Heads of both Factions but they do not consider that to purchase the Glory of Salust I would not give my self the Trouble being a sworn Enemy as I am to all Obligation
Nature The continually being accustom'd to any thing blinds the eye of our Judgment Barbarians are no more a wonder to us than we are to them nor with any more reason as every one would confess if after having travell'd over those remote Examples Men could settle themselves to reflect upon and rightly to confer them Humane Reason is a Tincture equally infus'd almost into all our Opinions and Customs of what form soever they are infinite in Matter infinite in Diversity But I return to my Subject There are a People where his Wife and Children excepted no one speaks to the King but through a Trunk In one and the same Nation the Virgins discover those Parts that Modesty should perswade them to hide and the married Women carefully cover and conceal To which this Custom in another Place has some Relation where Chastity but in Marriage is of no Esteem for unmarried Women may prostitute themselves to as many as they please and being got with Child may lawfully take Physick in the sight of every one to destroy their Fruit. And in another Place if a Tradesman marry all of the same Condition who are invited to the Wedding lye with the Bride before him and the greater number of them there is the greater is her Honour and the Opinion of her Ability and Strength if an Officer marry 't is the same the same with a Nobleman and so of the rest excepting it be a Labourer or one of mean Condition for then it belongs to the Lord of the Place to perform that Office and yet a severe Loyalty during Marriage is afterward strictly enjoyn'd There is a place where Bawdy-houses of Young-men are kept for the Pleasure of Women as we know there are of Women for the Necessities of Men and also Marriages where the Wives go to War as well as the Husbands and not only share in the dangers of Battel but moreover in the Honours of Command Others where they wear Rings not only through their Noses Lips Cheeks and on their Toes but also weighty Gymmals of Gold thrust through their Paps and Buttocks Where in eating they wipe their Fingers upon their Thighs Genitories and the Soles of their Feet Where Children are excluded and Brothers and Nephews only inherit and elsewhere Nephews only saving in the Royal Family and the Succession of the Crown where for the Regulation of Community in Goods and Estates observ'd in the Country certain Sovereign Magistrates have committed to them the universal Charge and over-seeing of the Agriculture and Distribution of the Fruits according to the Necessity of every one Where they lament the Death of Children and Feast at the Decease of old Men Where they lye ten or twelve in a Bed Men and their Wives together Where Women whose Husbands come to violent Ends may marry again and others not Where the servile Condition of Women is look'd upon with such Contempt that they kill all the native Females and buy Wives of their Neighbours to supply their Use Where Husbands may repudiate their Wives without shewing any Cause but Wives cannot part from their Husbands for what cause soever Where Husbands may sell their Wives in case of sterility Where they boyl the Bodies of their dead and afterwards pound them to a pulp which they mix with their Wine and drink it Where the most coveted Sepulture is to be eaten with Dogs and elsewhere by Birds Where they believe the Souls of the happy live in all manner of Liberty in delightful Fields furnish'd with all sorts of Delicacies and that it is those Souls repeating the words we utter which we call Eccho Where they fight in the Water and shoot their Arrows with the most mortal Aim swimming Where for a sign of Subjection they lift up their Shoulders and hang down their Heads and put off their shooes when they enter the King's Palace Where the Eunuchs who take charge of the Religious Women have moreover their Lips and Noses cut away and disguis'd that they may not be lov'd and the Priests put out their own Eyes to be better acquainted with their Daemons and the better to receive and retain their Oracles Where every one creates to himself a Deity of what he likes best according to his own Fancy the Hunter a Lyon or a Fox the Fisher some certain Fish and Idols of every Humane Action or Passion in which place the Sun the Moon and the Earth are the principal Deities and the form of taking an Oath is to touch the Earth looking up to Heaven and there both Flesh and Fish is eaten raw Where the greatest Oath they take is to swear by the Name of some dead Person of Reputation laying their hand upon his Tomb Where the New-years Gift the King sends every Year to the Princes his Subjects is Fire which being brought all the old Fire is put out and the neighbouring People are bound to fetch of the new every one for themselves upon pain of Treason Where when the King to betake himself wholly to Devotion retires from his Administration which often falls out his next Successor is oblig'd to do the same by which means the Right of the Kingdom devolves to the third in Succession Where they vary the Form of Government according to the seeming necessity of Affairs Depose the King when they think good substituting ancient men to govern in his stead and sometimes transferring it into the hands of the Common-People Where Men and Women are both Circumciz'd and also Baptiz'd Where the Souldier who in one or several Engagements has been so fortunate as to present seven of the Enemies Heads to the King is made noble where they live in that rare and singular Opinion of the Mortality of the Soul Where the Women are deliver'd without Pain or Fear Where the Women wear Copper Fetters upon both their Legs and if a Louse bite them are bound in Magnanimity to bite them again and dare not marry till first they have made their King a Tender of their Virginity if he please to accept it Where the ordinary way of Salutation is by putting a Finger down to the Earth and then pointing it up towards Heaven Where Men carry Burthens upon their Heads and Women on their Shoulders the Women pissing standing and the Men cowring down Where they send their Blood in token of Friendship and unsee the men they would nour like Gods Where not only to the fourth but in any other remote Degree Kindred are not permitted to marry Where the Children are four Years at Nurse and sometimes twelve in which Place also it is accounted mortal to give the Child suck the first day after it is born Where the Correction of the male Children is peculiarly design'd to the Fathers and to the Mothers of the Females the Punishment being to hang them by the Heels in the Smoak Where they eat all sorts of Herbs without other Scruple than of the Illness of the Smell Where all things are open the finest
does not follow it and sees Knowledge but makes no use of it Plato's principal Institution in his Republick is to fit his Citizens with Employments suitable to their Nature Nature can do all and does all Cripples are very unfit for Exercises of the Body and lame Souls for Exercises of the Mind Degenerate and vulgar Souls are unworthy of Philosophy If we see a Shooe-maker with his Shooes out at the Toes we say 't is no wonder for commonly none go worse shod than their Wives and they In like manner Experience does often present us a Physician worse physick'd a Divine worse reform'd and frequently a Scholar of less Sufficiency than another Aristo of Chios had anciently Reason to say That Philosophers did their Auditories harm forasmuch as most of the Souls of those that heard them were not capable of making benefit of their Instructions and if they did not apply them to good would certainly apply them to ill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex Aristippi acerbos ex Zenonis Schola exire They proceeded effeminate Prodigals from the School of Aristippus and Churles and Cynicks from that of Zeno. In that excellent Institution that Xenophon attributes to the Persians we find that they taught their Children Vertue as other Nations do Letters Plato tells us that the eldest Son in their Royal Succession was thus brought up So soon as he was born he was deliver'd not to Women but to Eunuchs of the greatest Authority about their Kings for their Vertue whose Charge it was to keep his Body healthful and in good plight and after he came to seven Years of Age to teach him to ride and to go a Hunting when he arriv'd at fourteen he was transferr'd into the hands of four the wisest the most just the most temperate and most valiant of the Nation of which the first was to instruct him in Religion the second to be always upright and sincere the third to conquer his Appetites and Desires and the fourth to despise all Danger 'T is a thing worthy of very great Consideration that in that excellent and in truth for its Perfection prodigious form and civil Regiment set down by Lycurgus though so sollicitous of the Education of Children as a thing of the greatest Concern and even in the very Seat of the Muses he should make so little mention of Learning as if their generous Youth disdaining all other Subjection but that of Vertue only ought to be supply'd instead of Tutors to read to them Arts and Sciences with such Masters as should only instruct them in Valour Prudence and Justice An Example that Plato has followed in his Laws the manner of whose Discipline was to propound to them Questions upon the Judgments of Men and of their Actions and if they commended or condemned this or that Person or Fact they were to give a Reason for so doing by which means they at once sharp'ned their Understanding and became skillful in the Laws Mandane in Xenophon asking her Son Cyrus how he would do to learn Justice and the other Vertues amongst the Medes having left all his Masters behind him in Persia He made Answer That he had learn'd those things long since that his Master had often made him a Judge of the Differences amongst his School-Fellows and had one day whip'd him for giving a wrong Sentence and thus it was A great Boy in the School having a little short Cassock by force took a longer from another that was not so tall as he and gave him his own in exchange whereupon I being appointed Judge of the Controversie gave Judgment That I thought it best either of them should keep the Coat he had for that they both of them were better fitted with that of one another than with their own upon which my Master told me I had done ill in that I had only consider'd the Fitness and Decency of the Garments whereas I ought to have consider'd the Justice of the thing which requires that no one should have any thing forcibly taken from him that is his own But it seems poor Cyrus was whip'd for his Pains as we are in our Villages for forgetting the first Aoriste of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Pedant must make me a very learned Oration in genere demonstrativo before he can perswade me that his School is like unto that They knew how to go the readiest way to work and seeing that Science when most rightly apply'd and best understood can do no more but teach us Prudence moral Honesty and Resolution they thought fit to initiate their Children with the knowledge of Effects and to instruct them not by Hear-say and by Rote but by the Experiment of Action in lively forming and moulding them not only by Words and Precepts but chiefly Works and Examples to the end it might not be a Knowledge of the Mind only but a Complexion and a Habit and not an Acquisition but a natural Possession One asking to this Purpose Agesilaus what he thought most proper for Boys to learn What they ought to do when they come to be Men said he It is therefore no wonder if such an Institution have produc'd so admirable Effects They us'd to go 't is said in the other Cities of Greece to enquire out Rhetoricians Painters and Musick-Masters but in Lacedaemon Legislators Magistrates and Generals of Armies at Athens they learnt to speak well and here to do well there to disengage themselves from a Sophistical Argument and to unravel Syllogisms here to evade the Baits and Allurements of Pleasure and with a noble Courage and Resolution to confute and conquer the menaces of Fortune and Death those cudgell'd their Brains about Words these made it their Business to enquire into things there was an eternal Babble of the Tongue here a continual Exercise of the Soul And therefore it is nothing strange if when Antipater demanded of them fifty Children for Hostages they made Answer quite contrary to what we should do That they would rather give him twice as many full grown Men so much did they value the loss of their Country's Education When Agesilaus courted Xenophon to send his Children to Sparta to be bred it is not said he there to learn Logick or Rhetorick but to be instructed in the noblest of all Sciences namely the Science to Obey and to Command It is very pleasant to see Socrates after his manner rallying Hippias who recounts to him what a World of Money he has got especially in certain little Villages of Sicily by teaching School and that he got never a Penny at Sparta What a sottish and stupid People says Socrates are they without Sense or Understanding that make no Account either of Grammars or Poetry and only busie themselves in studying the Genealogies and Successions of their Kings the Foundations Rises and Declensions of States and such Tales of a Tub After which having made Hippias particularly to acknowledge the Excellency of their Form of Publick Administration and the
Hec studia atque omnes delitias animi Alloquar audiero nunquam tua verba loquentem Nunquam ego te vita frater amabilior Aspiciam posthac at certe semper emabo Ah! Brother what a Life did I commence From that sad Day that thou wert ravisht hence Those Joys are gone that whilst thou tarried'st here By thy sweet Conversation nourish't were With thee when dying my good Fortune fled And in thy Grave my Soul was buried The Muses at thy Funerals I forsook And of thy Joy my leave for ever took Dearer than Life am I so wretched then Never to see nor speak to thee agen Nor hear thy Voice now frozen up by Death Yet will I Love thee to my latest Breath But let us hear a little a Boy of Sixteen speak In this place I did once intend to have incerted those Mesmoirs upon that famous Edict of January But being I since find that they are already Printed and with a malicious design by some who make it their business to molest and endeavour to subvert the state of our Government not caring whether they mend and reform it or no and that they have confounded this Writing of his with others of their own Leaven I desisted from that purpose But that the Memory of the Father may not be interested nor suffer with such as could not come near hand to be acquainted with his Principles I here give them truly to understand that it was writ by him in his very green Years and that by way of Exercise only as a common Theme that has been tumbled and tost by a Thousand Writers I make no question but that he himself believ'd what he writ being so Consciencious that way that he would not so much as lie in jest and do moreover know that could it have been in his own Choice he had rather have been Born at Venice than at Soarlac and he had reason But he had another Maxime Soveraignly imprinted in his Soul very Religiously to Obey and submit to the Laws under which he was Born There never was a better Citizen more affectionate to his Country nor a greater Enemy to all the Commotions and Innovations of his time So that he would doubtless much rather have employ'd his Talent to the extinguishing of those Civil Flames than have added any Fewel to them For he had a Mind fashion'd to the Model of better Ages But in exchange of this Serious Piece I will present you with another of a more Gay and Frolick Air from the same Hand and Writ at the same Age. CHAP. XXVIII Nine and Twenty Sonnets of Estienne de la Boetie to Madam de Grammont Countess of Guisson MAdam I offer to your Ladyship nothing of mine either because it is already yours or because I find nothing in my Writings worthy of you But I have a great desire that these Verses into what part of the World soever they may travel may carry your Name in the Front for the Honour will accrue to them by having the great Corisanda de Andonis for their safe Conduct I conceive this present Madam so much the more proper for you both by reason there are few Ladies in France who are so good Judges of Poetry and make so good use of it as you do as also that there is none who can give it that Spirit and Life your Ladyship does by that incomparable Voice Nature has added to your other perfections you will find Madam that these Verses deserve your esteem and will I dare say concur with me in this that Gascony never yeilded more Invention finer Expression or that more evidence themselves to flow from a Masters hand And be not Jealous that you have but the remainder of what I Publisht some Years since under the Name of Monsieur de Foix your brave Kinsman for certainly these have something in them more spritely and luxuriant as being Writ in a greener Youth and enflam'd with the Noble Ardour that I will tell your Ladyship in your Ear. The other were Writ since when he was a Suitor in the honour of his Wife already relishing of I know not what Matrimonial Coldness And for my part I am of the same opinion with those who hold that Poesie appears no where so Gay as in a wanton and irregular Subject These Nine and Twenty Sonnets that were inserted here are since Printed with his other Works CHAP. XXIX Of Moderation AS if we had an infectious Touch we by our manner of handling corrupt things that in themselves are laudable and good We may grasp Vertue so hard till it become Vicious if we embrace it too streight and with too violent a desire Those who say there is never any excess in Vertue for as much as it is no Vertue when it once becomes excess only play upon words Insani sapiens nomen ferat aequus iniqui Vltra quam satis est virtutem si petat ipsam The Wise for Mad the Just for Unjust pass When more than needs ev'n Vertue they embrace This is a subtle consideration in Philosophy A Man may both be too much in Love with Vertue and be excessive in a just Action Holy Writ agrees with this Be not Wiser than you should but be soberly Wise. I have known a great Man prejudice the Opinion Men had of his Devotion by pretending to be devout beyond all Examples of others of his condition I Love temperate and moderate Natures An immoderate Zeal even to that which is good though it does not offend does astonish me and puts me to study what Name to give it Neither the Mother of Pausanias who was the first instructer of her Sons process and threw the first stone towards his Death Nor Posthumus the Dictator who put his Son to Death whom the Ardour of Youth had fortunately pusht upon the Enemy a little more advanc't than the rest of his Squadron do appear to me so just as strange and I should neither advise nor like to follow so Savage a Vertue and that costs so dear The Archer that shoots over misses as well as he that falls short and 't is equally troublesome to my sight to look up at a great Light and to look down into a dark Abyss Callicles in Plato says That the extremity of Philosophy is hurtful and advises not to dive into it beyond the limits of Profit that taken moderately it is pleasant and useful but that in the end it renders a Man Bruitish and Vicious A Contemner of Religion and the common Laws an Enemy to Civil Conversation and all Humane Pleasures incapable of all Publick Administration unfit either to assist others or to relieve himself and a fit Object for all sorts of Injuries and Affronts without remedy or satisfaction He says true for in its Excess it enslaves our Natural Freedom and by an impertinent subtilty leads us out of the fair and beaten way that Nature has plain'd out for us The Love we bear to our
Wives is very lawful and yet Theology thinks fit to curb and restrain it As I remember I have read in one place of St. Thomas of Aquin where he condemns Marriages within any of the forbidden degrees for this reason amongst others that there is some danger lest the Friendship a Man bears to such a Woman should be immoderate for if the Conjugal Affection be full and perfect betwixt them as it ought to be and that it be over and above surcharg'd with that of Kindred too there is no doubt but such an addition will carry the Husband beyond the bounds of reason Those Sciences that regulate the manners of Men Divinity and Philosophy will have a saying to every thing There is no Action so private that can escape their Inspection and Jurisdiction but they are best taught who are best able to censure and curb their own Liberty 'T is the Women that expose their Nudities over freely upon the account of Pleasure though in the Necessities of Physick and Chyrurgery they are more shy and more reserv'd I will therefore in their behalf teach the Husbands that is such as are too extravagant and sensual in the exercise of the Matrimonial Duty this Lesson that the very Pleasures they enjoy in the Society of their Wives are Reproachable if immoderate and that a Licentious and Riotous abuse of them are Faults as reprovable here as illegitimate and adulterous Practices Those Immodest and Debauch'd Tricks and Postures that the first Ardour suggests to us in this Affair are not only indecently but inconveniently practis'd upon our Wives Let them at least learn Impudency from another hand they are always ready enough for our Business and I for my part always went the plain way to work Marriage is a Solemn and Religious Tie and therefore the pleasure we extract from thence should be a sober and serious delight and mixt with a certain kind of Gravity it should be a kind of discreet and conscientious pleasure And being that the chief end of it is Generation some make a Question whether when Men are out of hopes of that fruit as when they are superannuated or already with Child it be lawful to lie with our Wives 'T is Homicide according to Plato and certain Nations the Mahometan amongst others Abominate all Conjunction with Women with Child and others also with those who are Unclean Zenobia would never admit her Husband for more than one Encounter after which she left him to his own swing for the whole time of her Conception and not till after that would any more receive him A brave Example of Conjugal Continency It was doubtless from some Lascivious Poet and one that himself was in great distress for a little of this sport that Plato borrowed this Story that Jupiter was one Day so hot upon his Wife that not having so much patience as till she could get to the Couch he threw her upon the Floor where the vehemency of pleasure made him forget the great and important Resolutions he had but newly taken with the rest of the Gods in his Celestial Council and to brag that he had had as good a Bout as when he got her Maidenhead unknown to their Parents The Kings of Persia were wont to invite their Wives to the beginning of their Festivals but when the Wine began to work in good earnest and that they were to give the Reins to pleasure they sent them back to their private Appartments that they might not participate of their immoderate Lust sending for other Women in their stead with whom they were not oblig'd to so great a decorum of respect All Pleasures and all sorts of Gratifications are not properly and fitly conferr'd upon all sorts of Persons Epaminondas had Committed a young Man for certain Debauches for whom Pelopidas mediated that at his request he might be set at liberty which notwithstanding the great intelligence betwixt them Epaminondas resolutely deny'd to him but granted it at the first word to a Wench of his that made the same intercession saying that it was a Gratification fit for such a one as she but not for a Captain Sophocles being joint Praetor with Pericles seeing accidentally a fine Boy pass by O what a delicate Boy is that said he I that were a Prize answered Pericles for any other than a Praetor who ought not only to have his Hands but his Eyes Chaste too Elius Verus the Emperour answered his Wife who Reproach'd him with his Love to other Women that he did it upon a Conscientious account forasmuch as Marriage was a Name of Honour and Dignity not of Wanton and Lascivious Desire And our Ecclesiastical History preserves the Memory of that Woman in great Veneration who parted from her Husband because she would not comply with his indecent and inordinate Desire In fine there is no so just and lawful pleasure wherein the Intemperance and Excess is not to be Condemn'd But to speak the truth is not Man a most miserable Creature the while It is scarce by his Natural Condition in his power to taste one Pleasure pure and entire and yet must he be contriving Doctrines and Precepts to Curtal that little he has he is not yet Wretched enough unless by Art and Study he Augment his own Misery Fortunae miseras auximus Arte vias We with Misfortune 'gainst our selves take part And our own Miseries encrease by Art Humane Wisdom makes as ill use of her Talent when she exercises it in rescinding from the number and sweetness of those Pleasures that are naturally our due as she employs it favourably and well in Artificially disguising and tricking out the ills of Life to alleviate the Sense of them Had I rul'd the Roast I should have taken another and more natural course which to say the truth is both Commodious and Sacred and should peradventure have been able to have limited it too Notwithstanding that both our Spiritual and Corporal Physicians as by compact betwixt themselves can find no other way to cure nor other Remedy for the Infirmities of the Body and the Soul than what is oft times worse than the Disease by tormenting us more and by adding to our Misery and Pain To this end Watchings Fastings Hair-shirts remote and solitary Banishments perpetual Imprisonments Whips and other Afflictions have been introduc'd amongst Men But so that they should carry a sting with them and be real Afflictions indeed and not fall out so as it once did to one Gallio who having been sent an Exile into the Isle of Lesbos news was not long after brought to Rome that he there Liv'd as Merry as the Day was long and that what had been enjoin'd him for a Penance turn'd to his greatest Pleasure and Satisfaction Whereupon the Senate thought fit to recall him home to his Wife and Family and confine him to his own House to accommodate their Punishment to his feeling and apprehension For to him whom Fasting would make more Healthful and more
and yet may sometimes be Real and True that Haeredis fletus sub persona risus est The Heirs dissembled Tears behind the Skreen Could one but peep would Joyful smiles be seen so is it that in judging of these Accidents we are to consider how much our Souls are oft-times agitated with divers Passions And as they say that in our Bodies there is a Congregation of divers Humours of which that is the Soveraign which according to the Complexion we are of is commonly most predominant in us So though the Soul have in it divers motions to give it Agitation yet must there of necessity be one to over-rule all the rest though not with so necessary and absolute a Dominion but that through the Flexibility and Inconstancy of the Soul those of less Authority may upon occasion reassume their place and make a little Sally in turn Thence it is that we see not only Children who Innocently Obey and follow Nature often Laugh and Cry at the same thing but not one of us can boast what Journey soever he may have in hand that he has the most set his Heart upon but when he comes to part with his Family and Friends he will find something that troubles him within and though he refrain his Tears yet he puts Foot i' th' Stirrupt with a Sad and Cloudy Countenance and what gentle Flame soever may have warm'd the Heart of Modest and Well-Born Virgins yet are they fain to be forc'd from about their Mothers Necks to be put to Bed to their Husbands whatever this Boon Companion is pleas'd to say Estne novis nuptis odio venus anne parentum Frustrantur falsis gaudia lachrymalis Vbertim Thalami quas intra limina fundunt Non ita me Divi vera gemunt juverint Does the Fair Bride the Sport so mainly Dread That she takes on so when she 's put to Bed Her Parents Joys t' allay with a feign'd Tear She does not Cry in Earnest I dare Swear Neither is it strange to lament a person whom a man would by no means should be alive When I rattle my man I do it with all the mettle I have and load him with no feign'd but downright real Curses but the heat being over if he should stand in need of me I should be very ready to do him good for I instantly turn the leaf When I call him Calf and Coxcomb I do not pretend to entail those titles upon him for ever neither do I think I give my self the lye in calling him an honest man presently after Were it not the sign of a fool to talk to ones self there would hardly be a day or hour wherein I might not be heard to grumble and mutter to my self and against my self Turd in the fools teeth and yet I do not think that to be my Character Who for seeing me one while cold and presently very kind to my Wife believes the one or the other to be counterfeited is an Ass. Nero taking leave of his Mother whom he sent to be drown'd was nevertheless sensible of some emotion at this farewel and was struck with horror and pity 'T is said that the light of the Sun is not one continuous thing but that he darts new rays so thick one upon another that we cannot perceive the intermission Largus enim liquidi fons luminis aetherius Sol Irrigat assidue coelum candóre recenti Suppedit atque novo confestim lumine lumen For the aetherial Sun that shines so bright Being a fountain large of liquid light With fresh Rays sprinkles still the chearful Sky And with new light the light does still supply Just so the Soul variously and interceptibly darts out her Passions Artabanus surprising once his Nephew Xerxes Chid him for the sudden alteration of his Countenance As he was considering the immeasurable Greatness of his Forces passing over the Hellespont for the Grecian Expedition he was first seiz'd with a palpitation of Joy to see so many Millions of Men under his Command which also appear'd in the Gayety of his Looks But his Thoughts at the same instant suggesting to him that of so many Lives once in an Age at most there would not be one left he presently Knit his Brows and grew Sad even to Tears We have resolutely pursu'd the Revenge of an Injury receiv'd and been sensible of a singular Contentment for the Victory But we shall Weep notwithstanding 't is not for the Victory though that we shall Weep there is nothing alter'd by that but the Soul looks upon things with another Eye and represents them to it self with another kind of Face for every thing has many Faces and several Aspects Relations old Acquaintance and Friendships possess our Imaginations and make them tender for the time but the Counterturn is so quick that 't is gone in a Moment Nil a Deo fieri celeri ratione videtur Quam si mens fieri proponit inchoat ipsa Ocius ergo animus quam res se perciet ulla Ante oculos quarum in promptu natura videtur No motions seem so brisk and quick as those The working mind does to be done propose Which once propos'd her violent motions are Swifter than any thing we know by far And therefore while we would make one continued thing of all this succession of passion we deceive our selves When Timoleon laments the murther he had committed upon so mature and generous deliberation he does not lament the liberty restor'd to his Country he does not lament the Tyrant but he laments his Brother One part of his duty is perform'd let us give him leave to perform the other CHAP. XXXVIII Of Solitude LEt us praetermit that old comparison betwixt the active and the solitary life and as for the fine saying with which Ambition and Avarice palliate their vices That we are not born for our selves but for the publick let us boldly appeal to those who are most interested in publick affairs let them lay their hands upon their Hearts and then say whether on the contrary they do not rather aspire to Titles and Offices and that tumult of the World to make their private advantage at the publick expence But we need not ask them the question for the corrupt ways by which they arrive at the height to which their ambitions aspire does manifestly enough declare that their ends cannot be very good Let us then tell Ambition that it is she her self who gives us a taste of Solitude for what does she so much avoid as Society What does she so much seek as Elbow-room A man may do well or ill every where but if what Boas says be true that the greatest part is the worse or what the Preacher says that there is not one good of a thousand Rari quippe boni numero vix sunt totidem quot Thebazum Porte vel divitis ostia Nili Because the number of the Goods's as few As Thebes fair Gates or rich Nile mouths doth
misery of this Life to pretend to bliss in another the other by laying themselves low to avoid the Danger of falling are acts of an excessive Nature The Stoutest and most obstinate Natures render even their most obstruce retirements Glorious and Exemplary tuta parvula laudo Cum res dificiunt satis inter vilia fortis Verum ubi quid melius contigit et unctius Hos sapere solos aio bene vivere quorum idem Conspiciturmitidis fundata pecunia villis Where plenty fails A secure competency I like well And love the Man disaster cannot quellâ— But when good Fortune with a liberal hand Her gifts bestows those Men I understand Alone happy to live and to be Wise Whose Money does in neat built Villa's rise A great deal less would serve my turn well enough 'T is enough for me under Fortunes favour to prepare my self for her Disgrace and being at my ease to represent to my self as far as my imagination can Stretch the ill to come as we do at Justs and Tiltings where we counterfeit War in the greatest Calm of Peace I do not think Arcesilaus the Philosopher the less Temperate and Reform'd for knowing that he made use of Gold and Silver Vessels when the condition of his Fortune allow'd him so to do But have a better Opinion of him than if he had deni'd himself what he us'd with Liberality and Moderation I see the utmost Limits of Natural necessity and considering a Poor Man Begging at my Door oft-times more Jocund and more Healthy than I my self am I put my self into his place and attempt to dress my Mind after his Mode and running in like manner over other examples though I fancy Death Poverty Contempt and Sickness treading on my Heels I easily resolve not to be affrighted forasmuch as a less than I takes them with so much Patience and am not willing to believe that a less understanding can do more than a greater or that the effects of precept cannot arrive to as great a height as those of Custom And knowing of how uncertain duration these accidental conveniences are I never forget in the height of all my enjoyments to make it my cheifest Prayer to Almighty God that he will please to render me content with my self and the Condition wherein I am I see several Young Men very Gay and Frolick who nevertheless keep a Mass of Pills in their Trunck at home to take when the Rhume shall fall which they fear so much the less because they think they have Remedy at hand Every one should do the same and moreover if they find themselves subject to some more violent Disease should furnish themselves with such Medicines as may Numme and Stupifie the part The employment a Man should choose for a Sedentary Life ought neither to be a Laborious nor an unpleasing one otherwise 't is to no purpose at all to be retir'd and this depends upon every ones liking and humour mine has no manner of complacency for Husbandry and such as Love it ought to apply themselves to it with Moderation Conantur sibi res non se submittere rebus A Man should to himself his Business fit But should not to Affairs himself submit Husbandry is otherwise a very Servile Employment as Salust tells us though some parts of it are more excusable than the rest as the Care of Gardens which Zenophon attributes to Cyrus and a mean may be found out betwixt Sordid and Homely Affection so full of perpetual Solitude which is seen in Men who make it their entire Business and Study and that stupid and extream Negligence letting all things go at Random we see in others Democriti pecus edit agellos Cultaque dum peregre est animus sine corpore velox Democritus his Cattle spoils his Corn Whilst he from thence on Fancy's Wings is born But let us hear what Advice the Younger Pliny gives his Friend Cornelius Rufus upon the Subject of Solitude I advise thee in the plentiful Retirement wherein thou art to leave to thy Hinds and inferiour Servants the Care of thy Husbandry and to addict thy self to the Study of Letters to extract from thence something that may be entirely and absolutely thine own By which he means Reputation like Cicero who says that he would employ his Solitude and Retirement from Publick Affairs to acquire by his Writings an Immortal Life Vsque adeo ne Scire tuum nihil est nisi te scire hoc sciat alter Is all thy Learning nothing unless thou That thou art Knowing make all others know It appears to be reason when a Man talks of Retiring from the World that he should look quite out of himself These do it but by halves They design well enough for themselves 't is true when they shall be no more in it but still they pretend to extract the fruits of that Design from the World when absented from it by a Ridiculous Contradiction The Imagination of those who seek Solitude upon the account of Devotion filling their Hopes with certainty of Divine Promises in the other Life is much more rationally founded They propose to themselves God an infinite Object in Goodness and Power The Soul has there wherewithal at full liberty to satiate her Desires Afflictions and Sufferings turn to their advantage being undergone for the acquisition of an eternal Health and everlasting Joys Death is to be wish'd and long'd for where it is the passage to so perfect a Condition And the Tartness of these severe Rules they impose upon themselves is immediately taken away by Custom and all their Carnal Appetites baffled and subdu'd by refusing to humour and feed them they being only supported by use and exercise This sole end therefore of another happy and immortal Life is that which really merits that we should abandon the Pleasures and Conveniences of this And who can really and constantly enflame his Soul with the Ardour of this Lively Faith and Hope does erect for himself in this Solitude a more Voluptuous and Delicious Life than any other sort of Living whatever Neither the end then nor the means of this Advice of Pliny pleases me for we often fall out of the Frying-pan into the Fire This Book Employment is as painful as any other and as great an Enemy to Health which ought to be the first thing in every Man's prospect neither ought a Man to be allur'd with the pleasure of it which is the same that destroys the Wary Avaricious Voluptuous and Ambitious Men. The Wise give us Caution enough to beware the Treachery of our Desires and to distinguish true and entire Pleasures from such as are mix'd and complicated with greater Pain For the greatest part of Pleasures say they Wheedle and Caress only to strangle us like those Thieves the Egyptians call'd Philiste and if the Head-Ach should come before Drunkenness we should have a care of Drinking too much but Pleasure to deceive us Marches before and conceals
her Train Books are pleasant but if by being over Studious we impair our Health and spoil our good Humour two of the best Pieces we have let us give it over for I for my part am one of those who think that no Fruit deriv'd from them can recompence so great a Loss As Men who feel themselves Weakned by a long Series of Indisposition give themselves up at last to the Mercy of Medicine and submit to certain Rules of Living which they are for the future never to Transgress so he who Retires weary of and disgusted with the common way of Living ought to Model this new One he enters into by the Rules of Reason and to Institute and Establish it by Premeditation and after the best Method he can contrive He ought to have taken leave of all sorts of Labour what advantage soever he may propose to himself by it and generally to have shaken off all those Passions which disturb the Tranquility of Body and Soul and then choose the Way that best suits with his own Humour Vnusquisque sua noverit ire via Every one best doth know In his own Way to go In Menagery Study Hunting and all other Exercises Men are to proceed to the utmost limits of Pleasure but must take heed of engaging further where Solitude and Trouble begin to mix We are to reserve so much Employment only as is necessary to keep us in Breath and to defend us from the Inconveniences that the other Extream of a Dull and Stupid Laziness brings along with it There are some Steril Knotty Sciences and chiefly Hammer'd out for the Crow'd let such be left to them who are Engag'd in the Publick Service I for my part care for no other Books but either such as are pleasant and easie to delight me or those that comfort and instruct me how to Regulate my Life and Death Tacitum sylvas inter reptare salubres Curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonoque est Silently Meditating in the Groves What best a Wise and Honest Man behoves Wiser Men propose to themselves a Repose wholely Spiritual as having great force and vigour of Mind but for me who have a very ordinary Soul I find it very necessary to support my self with Bodily Conveniences and Age having of late depriv'd me of those Pleasures that were most acceptable to me I instruct and whet my Appetite to those that remain and are more suitable to this other season We ought to hold with all our force both of Hands and Teeth the use of the Pleasures of Life that our Years one after another snatch away from us Carpamus dulciâ— nostrum est Quod vivis cinis manes fabula fies Let us Enjoy Life's Sweets for shortly we Ashes Pale Ghost's and Fables all shall be Now as to the End that Pliny and Cicero propose to us of Glory 't is infinitely wide of my account for Ambition is of all other the most contrary Humour to Solitude and Glory and Repose are so inconsistant that they cannot possibly Inhabit in one and the same place and for so much as I understand those have only their Arms and Legs disingag'd from the Crowd their Mind and Intention remains engag'd behind more than ever Tun ' vetule auriculis alienis colligis escas Dost thou Old Dotard at these Years Gather fine Tales for others Ears They are only Retir'd to take a better Leap and by a stronger Motion to give a brisker Charge into the Crowd Will you see how they shoot short Let us put into the Counterpoise the Advice of two Philosophers of two very different Sects Writing the one to Idomeneus the other to Lucilius their Friends to Retire into Solitude from Worldly Honours and the Administration of Publick Affairs You have say they hitherto Liv'd Swimming and Floating come now and Die in the Harbour You have given the first part of your Life to the Light give what remains to the Shade It is impossible to give over Business if you do not also quit the Fruit and therefore disengage your selves from all the Concerns of Name and Glory 'T is to be fear'd the Lustre of your former Actions will give you but too much Light and follow you into your most private and most obscure Retreat Quit with other Pleasures that which proceeds from the Approbation of another And as to your Knowledg and Parts never concern your selves they will not lose their effect if your selves be ever the better for them Remember him who being ask'd why he took so much Pains in an Art that could come to the Knowledg of but few Persons A few are enough for me repli'd he I have enough of one I have enough of never a one He said true you and a Companion are Theatre enough to one another or you to your self Let us be to you the whole People and the whole People to you but one 'T is an unworthy Ambition to think to derive Glory from a Man's Sloath and Privacy You are to do like the Beasts of Chace who put out the Track at the entrance into their Den. You are no more to concern your self how the World talks of you but how you are to talk to your self Retire your self into your self but first prepare your self there to receive your self It were a folly to trust your self in your own Hands if you cannot Govern yourself a Man may as well miscarry alone as in Company till you have rendred your self as such as before whom you dare not Trip and till you have a Bashfulness and Respect for your self Observantur species honestae animo Let just and honest things be still Represented to the Mind Present continually to your Imagination Cato Phocio and Antistides in whose presence the Fools themselves will hide their Faults and make them Controulers of all your Intentions Should they deviate from Vertue your Respect to them will again set you right they will keep you in the way of being Contented with your self to Borrow nothing of any other but your self to restrain and fix your Soul in certain and limited Thoughts wherein she may please her self and having understood the true and real Goods which Men the more enjoy the more they understand to rest satisfied without desire of prolongation of Life or Memory This is the Precept of the True and Natural Philosophy not of a Boasting and Prating Philosophy such as that of the two former CHAP. XXXIX A Consideration upon Cicero ONe Word more by way of Comparison betwixt these two There are to be gather'd out of the Writings of Cicero and this Younger Pliny but little in my opinion resembling his Uncle in his Humour infinite Testimonies of a beyond measure Ambitious Nature and amongst others this for one that they both in the sight of all the World solicite the Historians of their time not to forget them in their Mesmoires and Fortune as if in spite has made the Vacancy of those Requests Live upon
the power thou hast but thou shalt never make me say that thou art an Evil. This Story that they make such a Clutter withal what is there in it I fain would know to the Contempt of Pain It only Fights it with Words and in the mean time if the Shootings and Dolours he felt did not move him why did he interrupt his Discourse Why did he fancy he did so great a thing in forbearing to confess it an Evil All does not here consist in the Imagination our Fancies may work upon other things But this here is a certain Science that is playing its part of which our Senses themselves are judg Qui nisi sunt veri ratio quoque falsa sit omnis Which if it be not here most true Reason it self must be false too Shall we perswade our Skins that the Jerks of a Whip tickle us Or our Taste that a Potion of Aloes is Graves Wine Pyrrho's Hog is here in the same Predicament with us he is not afraid of Death 't is true but if you Beat him he will Cry out to some purpose Shall we force the general Law of Nature which in every Living Creature under Heaven is seen to Tremble under Pain The very Trees seem to Groan under the Blows they receive Death is only felt by Discourse forasmuch as it is the motion of an instant Aut fuit aut veniet nihil est presentis in illa Morsque minus paenae quam mora mortis habet Death's always past or coming on in this There never any thing of present is And the delays of Death more painful are Than Death it self and Dying is by far A Thousand Beasts a Thousand Men are sooner Dead than Threatned That also which we principally pretend to Fear in Death is Pain the ordinary fore-runner of it Yet if we may believe a Holy Father Malam mortem non facit nisi quod sequitur mortem Nothing makes Death Evil but what follows it And I should yet say more probably that neither that which goes before nor that which follows after are at all the appendants of Death We excuse our selves falsely And I find by experience that it is rather the impatience of the Imagination of Death that makes us impatient of Pain and that we find it doubly grievous as it Threatens us with Death But Reason accusing our Cowardize for fearing a thing so sudden so inevitable and so insensible we take the other as the more excusable pretence All ills that carry no other danger along with them but simply the Evils themselves we despise as things of no danger The Tooth-Ach or the Gout as painful as they are being yet not reputed Mortal who reckons them in the Catalogue of Diseases But let us presuppose that in Death we principally regard the Pain as also there is nothing to be fear'd in Poverty but the Miseries it brings along with it of Thirst Hunger Cold Heat Watching and the other Inconveniences it makes us suffer yet still we have nothing to do with any thing but Pain I will grant and very willingly that it is the worst Accident of our Being for I am the Man upon Earth that the most Hates and avoids it considering that hitherto I thank God I have had so little Traffick with it but still it is in us if not to annihilate at least to lessen it by Patience and though the Body should Mutiny to Maintain the Soul nevertheless in a good Temper And were it not so who had ever given Reputation to Vertue Valour Force Magnanimity and Resolution where were their parts to be plaid if there were no Pain to be Defi'd Avida est periculi virtus Vertue is greedy of danger Were there no lying upon the hard ground no enduring arm'd at all pieces the Meridional Heats no feeding upon the flesh of Horses and Asses no seeing a Man's self hack'd and hew'd to pieces no suffering a Bullet to be pull'd out from amongst the shatter'd Bones the sticking up cauterising and searching of Wounds by what means were the advantage we covet to have over the Vulgar to be acquir'd 'T is far from flying Evil and Pain what the Sages say that of Actions equally good a Man should most covet to perform that wherein there is greater Labour and Pain Non est enim hilaritate nec lascivia nec risu aut joco comite levitatis sed saepe etiam tristes firmitate constantia sunt beati For Men are not only happy by Mirth and Wantonness neither by Laughter and Jesting the Companion of Levity But oft times the Graver and more Melancholick sort of Men reap Felicity from their Steadiness and Constancy And for this reason it has ever been impossible to perswade our Fore-fathers but that the Victories obtain'd by dint of Force and the hazard of War were still more Honourable than those perform'd in great Security by Stratagem or Practice Laetius est quoties magno sibi constat honestum A handsome Act more handsome does appear By how much more it cost the doer dear Besides this ought to be our comfort that naturally if the Pain be violent 't is but short and if long nothing violent Si gravis brevis si longus levis Thou wilt not feel it long if thou feel'st it too much it will either put an end to it self or to thee if thou canst not support it it will export thee Memineris maximos morte finiri parvos multa habere intervalla requietis mediocrium nos esse dominos ut si tolerabiles sint feramus sin minus e vita quum ea non placeat tanquam e theatro exeamus Remember that great ones are terminated by Death that small have long Intermissions of Repose and that we are Masters of the moderate sort so that if tollerable we may bear them if not we can go out of Life as from a Theatre where the Entertainment does not please us that which makes us suffer Pain with so much Impatience is the not being accustomed to repose our chiefest Contentment in the Soul that we do not enough relie upon her who is the sole and soveraign Mistress of our Condition The Body saving in greater or less proportion has but one and the same Bent and Bias whereas the Soul is variable into all sorts of forms and subjects to her self and to her own Empire all things whatsoever both the Senses of the Body and all other Accidents and therefore it is that we ought to study her to enquire into her and to rowse up all her powerful Faculties There is neither Reason Form nor Prescription that can any thing prevail against her Inclination and Choice of so many Thousands of Biasses that she has at her disposal let us give her one proper to our repose and conservation and then we shall not only be shelter'd and secur'd from all manner of Injury and Offence but moreover gratified and oblig'd if we will with Evils
and Offences She makes her profit indifferently of all things Errour and Dreams serve her to good use as a Loyal matter to Lodg us in Safety and Contentment 'T is plain enough to be seen that 't is the sharpness of our Conceit that gives the Edg to our Pains and Pleasures Beasts that have no such thing leave to their Bodies their own free and natural Sentiments and consequently in every kind very near the same as appears by the resembling Application of their Motions If we would not disturb in our Members the Jurisdiction that appertains to them in this 't is to be believed it would be the better for us and that Nature has given them a just and moderate Temper both to Pleasure and Pain neither can it fail of being Just being Equal and Common But seeing we have Enfranchis'd our selves from these Rules to give our selves up to the rambling Liberty of our own Fancies let us at least help to encline them to the most agreeable side Plato fears our too vehemently engaging our selves with Grief and Pleasure forasmuch as these too much Knit and Ally the Soul to the Body whereas I rather quite contrary by reason it too much separates and disunites them As an Enemy is made more Feirce by our Flight so Pain grows Proud to see us Truckle under it She will surrender upon much better Terms to them who make Head against her A Man must oppose and stoutly set himself against it In retiring and giving ground we invite and pull upon our selves the Ruine that Threatens us As the Body is more firm in an Encounter the more stifly and obstinately it applys it self to it so is it with the Soul But let us come to Examples which are the proper Commodity for Fellows of such feeble Reins as my self where we shall find that it is with Pain as with Stones that receive a more spritely or a more languishing Lustre according to the Foil they are set upon and that it has no more room in us than we are pleas'd to allow it Tantum doluerunt quantum doloribus se inserverunt They Griev'd so much the more by how much they set themselves to Grieve We are more sensible of one little touch of a Chyrurgeons Lancet than of Twenty Wounds with a Sword in the heat of Fight The Pains of Child-bearing said by the Physician and by God himself to be very great and which our Women keep so great a Clutter about there are whole Nations that make nothing of it To say nothing of the Lacedemonian Women what alteration can you see in our Switzers Wives of the Guard saving as they trot after their Husbands you see them to Day with the Child hanging at their Backs that they carried yesterday in their Bellies And the counterfeit Gipsies we have amongst us go themselves to Wash their's so soon as they come into the World in the first River they meet Besides so many Whores as Daily steal their Children out of their Womb as before they stole them in that fair and noble Wife of Sabinus a Patrician of Rome for anothers interest alone without help without crying out or so much as a Groan endur'd the Bearing of Two Twins A poor simple Boy of Lacedemon having stole a Fox for they more fear the Shame of their Knavery in stealing than we do the Punishment of our Knavery and having got him under his Coat did rather endure the tearing out of his Bowels than he would discover his Theft And another Cursing at a Sacrifice suffer'd himself to be Burnt to the Bone by a Coal that fell into his Sleive rather than disturb the Ceremony And there have been a great Number for a sole Trial of Vertue following their instructions who have at Seven Years old endur'd to be Whipt to Death without changing their Countenance And Cicero has seen them Fight in Parties with Fists Feet and Teeth till they have fainted and sunk down rather than confess themselves overcome Custom would never Conquer Nature for she is ever Invincible but we have infected the Mind with Shadows Delights Wantonness Negligence and Sloath and with vain Opinions and corrupt Manners render'd it Effeminate and Mean Every one knows the Story of Scevola that being slipt into the Enemies Camp to Kill their General and having miss'd his Blow to repair his fault by a more strange Invention and to deliver his Country he boldly confess'd to Porsenna who was the King he had a purpose to Kill not only his design but moreover added that there were then in his Camp a great Number of Romans his Complices in the Enterprize as good Men as he and to shew what a one he himself was having caus'd a Pan of Burning Coals to be brought he saw and endur'd his Arm to Broil and Roast till the King himself conceiving Horrour at the sight commanded the Pan to be taken away What would you say of him that would not vouchsafe to respite his Reading in a Book whilst he was under Incision And of the other that persisted to Mock and Laugh in Contempt of the Pains Inflicted upon him so that the provok'd Cruelty of the Executioners that had him in handling and all the Inventions of Tortures redoubled upon him one after another spent in vain gave him the Bucklers But he was a Philosopher What! a Fencer of Caesar's Endur'd and Laughing all the while his Wounds to be search'd Launc'd and laid open Quis mediocris gladiator ingenuit Quis vultum mutavit unquam Quis non modo stet it verum etiam decubuit turbiter Quis cum decubuisset ferrum recipere jussus collum contraxit What mean Fencer ever so much as gave a Groan Which of them ever so much as chang'd his Countenance Which of them standing or falling did either with Shame Which of them when he was down and commanded to receive the Blow of the Sword ever shrunk in his Neck Let us bring in the Women too Who has not heard at Paris of her that caus'd her Face to be fley'd only for the fresher Complexion of a new Skin There are who have drawn good and sound Teeth to make their Voices more soft and sweet or to place them in better Order How many Examples of the Contempt of Pain have we in that Sex What can they not do What do they fear to do for never so little hopes of an Addition to their Beauty Vellere queis cura est albos a stirpe capillos Et faciem dempta pelle referre novam Who pluck their Gray Hairs by the Roots and try An old Head Face with young Skin to supply I have seen some of them swallow Sand Ashes and do their utmost to destroy their Stomachs to get Pale Complexions To make a fine Spanish Body what Wracks will they not endure of Tweaking and Bracing till they have Notches in their Sides cut into the very quick Flesh and sometimes to Death It is an ordinary thing with several
could not miscarry since he knew so well how to command 'T is rather answered he because the people know so well how to obey As Women succeeding to Peerages had notwithstanding their sex the priviledge to assist and give in their Votes in the Causes that appertained to the jurisdiction of Peers So the Ecclesiastical Peers notwithstanding their profession were obliged to assist our Kings in their Wars not only with their friends and servants but in their own persons As the Bishop of Beauvais did who being with Philip Augustus at the Battel of Bouvines had a notable share in that action but he did not think it fit for him to participate in the Fruit and Glory of that violent and Bloody Trade He with his own Hand reduc'd several of the Enemy that day to his mercy whom he delivered to the first Gentleman he met either to kill or receive them to Quarter referring the execution to another hand As also did William Earl of Salisbury to Messire Jean de Nesle with a like subtlety of conscience to the other we named before he would Kill but not wound him and for that reason ever fought with a Mace And a certain person of my time being reproacht by the King that he had laid hands on a Priest stiffly and positively deny'd he had done any such thing the meaning of which was he had cudgell'd and kick'd him CHAP. XLII Of the Inequality amongst us PLutarch says somewhere that he does not find so great a difference betwixt Beast and Beast as he does betwixt Man and Man Which is said in reference to the internal Qualities and Perfections of the Soul And in truth I find according to my poor Judgment so vast a distance betwixt Epaminondas and some that I know who are yet Men of common sense that I could willingly enhance upon Plutarch and say that there is more difference betwixt such and such a Man than there is betwixt such a Man and such a Beast Hem vir viro quid praestat How much alass One Man another doth surpass And that there are as many and innumerable degrees of Wits as there are Cubits betwixt this and Heaven But as touching the Estimate of Men 't is strange that our selves excepted no other Creature is esteem'd beyond its proper Qualities we commend a Horse for his Strength and sureness of Foot Volucrem Sic laudamus equum facili cui plurima palma Fervet exultat rauco victoria circo So we commend the Horse for being fleet Who many Palms by Breath and Speed does get And which the Trumpets in the Circle grace With their hoarse Levets for his well run Race and not for his Rich Caparisons a Greyhound for his share of Heels not for his fine Collar a Hawk for her Wing not for her Gests and Bells Why in like manner do we not value a Man for what is properly his own He has a great Train a beautiful Palace so much Credit so many Thousand Pounds a Year and all these are about him but not in him You will not buy a Pig in a Poke if you cheapen a Horse you will see him stript of his Housing-cloaths you will see him naked and open to your Eye or if he be Cloath'd as they anciently were wont to present them to Princes to Sell 't is only on the less important parts that you may not so much consider the beaty of his Colour or the breadth of his Crupper as principally to examine his Limbs Eyes and Feet which are the Members of greatest use Regibus hic mos est ubi equos mercantur opertos Juspiciunt ne si facies ut saepe decora Molli fulta pede est emptorem inducat hiantem Quod pulchrae clunes breve quod caput ardua cervix When Kings Steeds Cloath'd as 't is their manner Buy They straight examine very Curiously Lest a short Head a thin and well rais'd Crest A broad spread Buttock and an ample Chest Should all be propt with an old beaten Hoof To gull the Buyer when they come to proof Why in giving your Estimate of a Man do you Prize him wrapt and muffled up in Cloaths He then discovers nothing to you but such parts as are not in the least his own and conceals those by which alone one may rightly judg of his Value 'T is the price of the Blade that you enquire into and not of the Scabbard You would not peradventure bid a Farthing for him if you saw him stripp'd You are to judg him by himself and not by what he wears And as one of the Ancients very pleasantly said do you know why you repute him Tall You reckon withal the heighth of his Chepines whereas the Pedestal is no part of the Statue Measure him him without his Stilts let him lay aside his Revenues and his Titles let him present himself in his Shirt then examine if his Body be sound and spritely active and dispos'd to perform its Functions What Soul has he Is it Beautiful capable and happily provided of all her Faculties Is she Rich of what is her own or of what she has Borrowed Has Fortune no hand in the Affair Can she without winking stand the lightning of Swords is she indifferent whether her Life expire by the Mouth or through the Throat Is she Settled Even and Content This is what is to be examin'd and by that you are to judg of the vast differences betwixt Man and Man Is he Sapiens sibique imperiosus Quem neque pauperies neque mors neque vincula terrent Responsare cupidinibus contemnere honores Fortis in seipso totus teres atque rotundus Externi ne quid valeat per laeve morari In quem manta ruit semper fortuna Wife and commanding o're his Appetite One whom nor Want nor Death nor Bonds can Fright To check his Lusts and Honours scorn so stout And in himself so round and clear throughout That no External thing can stop his course And on whom Fortune vainly tries her force such a Man is rais'd Five Hundred Fathoms above Kingdoms and Dutchies he is an Absolute Monarch in and to himself Sapens Pol ipse fingit fortunam sibi The Wise Man his own Fortune makes What remains for him to Covet or Desire Nonne videmus Nil aliud sibi naturam latrare nisi ut quoi Corpore sejunctus dolor absit mente fruatur Jucundo sensu cura semotus metuque We see that Nature to no more aspires Nor to her self a greater good requires Than that whose Body is from Dolours free He should his Mind with more Serenity And a more pleasing Sense enjoy quite clear From those two grand Disturbers Grief and Fear Compare with such a one the common Rabble of Mankind stupid and mean Spirited Servile Instable and continually floating with the Tempest of various Passions that tosses and tumbles them to and fro and all depending upon others and you will find a greater distance
than betwixt Heaven and Earth and yet the blindness of common usage is such that we make little or no account of it Whereas if we consider a Peasant and a King a Noble-Man and a Villain a Magistrate and a private Man a Rich Man and a Poor there appears a vast disparity though they differ no more as a Man may say than in their Breeches In Thrace the King was distinguish'd from his People after a very pleasant manner He had a Religion by himself a God of his own and which his Subjects were not to presume to Adore which was Mercury whilst on the other side he disdain'd to have any thing to do with theirs Mars Bacchus and Diana And yet they are no other than Pictures that make no Essential Dissimilitude for as you see Actors in a Play representing the person of a Duke or an Emperour upon the Stage and immediately after in the Tiring Room return to their true and original Condition so the Emperour whose Pomp and Lustre does so dazle you in Publick Scilicet grandes viridi cum luce smaragdi Auro includuntur teriturque Thalassina vestis Assidue veneris sudorem exercita petat Great Emeralds richly are in Gold enchast To dart Green Lustre and the Sea-greenvest Continually is worn and rub'd to Frets Whilst it Imbibes the Juice that Venus Sweats do but peep behind the Curtain and you 'l see nothing more than an ordinary Man and peradventure more Contemptible than the meanest of his Subjects Ille beatus introrsum est istius bracteata felicitas est True Happiness lies within the other is but a counterfeit Felicity Cowardize Irresolution Ambition Spite and Envy are as Predominant in him as in another Non enim gazae neque consularis Summovet lictor miseros tumultus Mentis curas laqueata circum Tecta volentes For neither Wealth Honours nor Offices Can the wild Tumults of the Mind appease Nor chase those Cares that with unweari'd Wings Hover about the Palaces of Kings Nay Solitude and Fear attack him even in the Center of his Battalions Re veraque metus hominum curaeque sequaces Nec metuunt sonitus armorum nec fera tela Audacterque inter Reges rerumque potentes Versantur neque fulgorem reverentur ab auro For Fears and Cares warring with Humane Hearts Fear not the clash of Arms nor points of Darts But with great Kings and Potentates makes Bold Maugre their Purple and their Glittering Gold Do Feavers Gouts and Apoplexies spare them any more than one of us When Old Age hangs heavy upon a Princes Shoulders can the Yeomen of his Guard ease him of the Burthen When he is Astonish'd with the apprehension of Death can the Gentlemen of his Bed-Chamber comfort and assure him When Jealousie or any other Caprichio swims in his Brain can our Complements and Ceremonies restore him to his good Humour The Canopy Embroider'd with Pearl and Gold he lies under has no Vertue against a violent fit of the Stone or Cholick Nec calidae citius decedunt corpore febres Textilibus si in picturis estroque rubenti Jacteris quam si plebeia in veste cubandum est Nor sooner will a Calenture depart Although in figur'd Tissues lodg'd thou art Than if thy homely Couch were meanly spread With poorest Blankets of the coursest thred The Flatterers of Alexander the Great possest him that he was the Son of Jupiter But being one Day Wounded and observing the Blood stream from his Wound What say you now my Masters said he is not this Blood of a Crimson Colour and purely Humane This is not of the Complexion with that which Homer makes to issue from the Wounded Gods The Poet Hermedorus had Writ a Poem in Honour of Antigonus wherein he call'd him the Son of the Sun But who has the emptying of my Close-stool said Antigonus will find to the contrary He is but a Man at best and if he be Deform'd or ill Qualified from his Birth the Empire of the Universe can neither mend his Shape nor his Nature Puellae Hunc rapiant quidquid culcaverit hic rosa fiat Though Maids should Ravish him and where he goes In every step he takes should spring a Rose what of all that if he be a Fool and a Sot even Pleasure and good Fortune are not relish'd without Vigour and Understanding Haec perinde sunt ut illius animus qui ed possidet Qui uti scit ei bona illi qui non utitur recte mala Things to the Souls of their Possessors square Goods if well us'd if ill they Evils are Whatever the Benefits of Fortune are they yet require a Pallat fit to relish and taste them 'T is Fruition and not possession that renders us Happy Non domus fundus non aeris acervus auri Aegroto domini deduxit corpore febres Non animo curas valeat possessor oportet Qui comportatis rebus bene cogitat uti Qui cupit aut metuit juvat illum sit domus aut res Vt lippum pictae Tabulae fomenta podacram Manners or heaps of Brass and Gold afford No ease at all to their Febritick Lord Nor can they cure his Cares 't is requisite The Good 's Possessor know the use of it Who Fears or Covets these so help him out As Pictures Blind Folks Cataplasmes the Gout He is a Sot his Taste is pall'd and flat he no more enjoys what he has than one that has a Cold relishes the flavour of Canary or than a Horse is sensible of his Rich Caparison Plato is in the right when he tells us that Health Beauty Vigour and Riches and all the other things call'd Goods are equally Evil to the Unjust as Good to the Just and the Evil on the contrary the same And therefore where either the Body or the Mind are in disorder to what use serve these external Conveniences Considering that the least prick with a Pin or the least Passion of the Soul is sufficient to deprive us of the pleasure of being sole Monarch of the World At the first twitch of the Gout it signifies much to be call'd Sir and your Majesty Totus argento conflatus totus auro Although his Chests are cram'd whilst they will hold With immense Sums of Silver Coin and Gold does he not forget his Palaces and Grandeurs If he be Angry can his being a Prince keep him from looking Red and looking Pale and grinding his Teeth like a Mad-man Now if he be a Man of parts and well descended Royalty adds very little to his Happiness Si ventri bene si lateri est pedibusque tuis nil Divitiae poterant regales addere majus If thou art right and sound from Head to Foot A Kings Revenue can add nothing to 't He discerns 't is nothing but Counterfeit and Gullery Nay perhaps he would be of King Seleucus opinion That who knew the weight of a Scepter would
Oppius and Caesar than Caesar and Oppius and me and thee than thee and me which is the reason that made me formerly take notice in the life of Flaminius in our French Plutarch of one passage where it seems as if the Author speaking of the jealousie of honour betwixt the Aetolians and Romans about the winning of a Battel they had with their join'd forces obtain'd made it of some importance that in the Greek Songs they had put the Aetolians before the Romans If there be no amphibology or double dealing in the words of the French translation an instance of which I present you out of Plutarch though Monsieur de Montaigne did not think it worth repeating Here Friendly Passenger we Buried lie Without Friends Tears or Fun'ral Obsequie Full Thirty Thousand Men in Battel Slain By the Aetolians on Thesalian Plain And Latines whom Flaminius led on And brought from Italy to Macedon With his fierce Valour when faint Philip fled With greater speed to save his tim'rous Head Than Hart or Hind when Dogs upon the Trace Through Woods pursue them with a full Cry Chace The Ladies in their Baths made no scruple of admitting Men amongst them and moreover made use of their Serving-men to Rub and Anoint them Inguina succintus nigra tibi servus aluta Stat quoties calidis nuda foveris aquis … … They all Powdered themselves with a certain Powder to moderate their Sweats The Ancient Gaules says Sidonius Apollinaris wore their Hair long before and the hinder part of the Head cut short a Fashion that begins to be reviv'd in this Vicious and Effeminate Age. The Romans us'd to pay the Watermen their Fare at their first stepping into the Boat which we never do till after Landing Dum as exigitur dum mula ligatur Tota abit hora. Whilst the Fare's paying and the Mule is ti'd A whole Hours time at least away doth slide The Women us'd to lie on that side the Bed next the Wall And for that reason they call'd Caesar Spondam Regis Nicomedis one of the greatest Blemishes in his Life and that gave occasion to his Souldiers to sing to his Face Gallias Caesar subegit Nicomedes Caesarem Caesar the Gaules subdu'd 't is true But Nicomedes Caesar did subdue Ecce Caesar nunc triumphat qui subegit Gallias Nicomedes non triumphat qui subegit Caesarem See Caesar Triumphs now for Conqu'ring Gaule For Conqui'ring him King Nicomede at all No Triumph has They took Breath in their Drinking and dash'd their Wine Quis puer ocius Restinguet ardentis falerni Pecula praetereunte lympha What pretty Boy 's at leisure to come in And cool the heat of the Falernian Wine With the clear gliding Stream And the Roguish Looks and Gestures of our Lacquey's was also in use amongst them O Jane a tergo quem nulla ciconia pinsit Nec manus auriculas imitata est mobilis albas Nec linguae quantum sitiet canis Apula tantum O Janus who both ways a Spy dost wear So that no Scoffer though behind thee dare Make a Stork's-bill Ass-ears or far more long Than thirsty panting Curs shoot out his Tongue The Argian and Roman Ladies always Mourn'd in White as ours did formerly here and should do still were I to Govern in this point But there are whole Books of this Argument CHAP. L. Of Democritus and Heraclitus THe Judgment is an utensil proper for all subjects and will have an Oar in every thing which is the reason that in these Essays I take hold of all occasions Where though it happen to be a subject I do not very well understand I try however sounding it at a distance and finding it too deep for my stature I keep me on the firm shoar and this knowledge that a Man can proceed no further is one effect of its Vertue even in the most inconsidering sort of men One while in an idle and frivolous subject I try to find out matter whereof to compose a body and then to prop and support it Another while I employ it in a noble subject one that has been tost and tumbled by a thousand hands wherein a Man can hardly possibly introduce any thing of his own the way being so beaten on every side that he must of necessity walk in the steps of another In such a case 't is the work of the judgment to take the way that seems best and of a thousand paths to determine that this or that was the best chosen I leave the choice of my arguments to Fortune and take that the first presents me they are all alike to me I never design to go through any of them for I never see all of any thing Neither do they who so largely promise to shew it others Of a hundred Members and Faces that every thing has I take one one while to look it over only another while to ripple up the Skin and sometimes to pinch it to the Bones I give a stab not so wide but as deep as I can and am for the most part tempted to take it in hand by some absolute gracefulness I discover in it Did I know my self less I might perhaps venture to handle something or other to the bottom and to be deceiv'd in my own inability but sprinkling here one word and there another Patterns cut from several Pieces and scatter'd without design and without engaging my self too far I am not responsible for them or oblig'd to keep close to my subject without varying at my own liberty and pleasure and giving up my self to doubt and incertainty and to my own governing Method Ignorance All Motion discovers us The very same Soul of Caesar that made it self so Conspicuous in Marshalling and Commanding the Battle of Pharsalia was also seen as Solicitous and Busie in the softer Affairs of Love A Man makes a Judgment of a Horse not only by seeing his Menage in his Airs but by his very walk nay and by seeing him stand in the Stable Amongst the Functions of the Soul there are some of a lower and meaner Form who does not see her in those Inferiour Offices as well as those of Nobler Note never fully discover her and peradventure she is best discover'd where she moves her own natural pace The Winds of Passions take most hold of her in her highest flights and the rather by reason that she wholely applys her self to and exercises her whole Vertue upon every particular subject and never handles more than one thing at a time and that not according to it but according to her self Things in respect to themselves have peradventure their Weight Measures and Conditions but when we once take them into us the Soul forms them as she pleases Death is Terrible to Cicero Coveted by Cato and Indifferent to Socrates Health Conscience Authority Knowledg Riches Beauty and their contraries do all strip themselves at their entring into us and receive a new Robe and of another
and declar'd that Thirty Years Old was sufficient for a Judg. Survius Tullius superceded the Knights of above Seven and Forty Years of Age from the Fatigues of War Augustus dismiss'd them at Forty Five Though methinks it seems a little unlikely that Men should be sent to the Fire-side till Five and Fifty or Sixty Years of Age. I should be of Opinion that both our Vacancy and Employment should be as far as possible extended for the Publick Good But I find the fault on the other side that they do not employ us Early enough This Emperour was Arbiter of the whole World at Nineteen and yet would have a Man to be Thirty before he could be fit to bear Office in the Common-wealth For my part I believe our Souls are Adult at Twenty such as they are ever like to be and as capable then as ever A Soul that has not by that time given evident earnest of its Force and Vertue will never after come to proof Natural Parts and Excellencies produce that they have of Vigorous and Fine within that Term or never Of all the great Humane Actions I ever Heard or Read of of what sort soever I have Observ'd both in former Ages and our own more perform'd before the Age of Thirty than after And oft-times in the very Lives of the same Men. May I not confidently instance in those of Hannibal and his great concurrent Scipio The better half of their Lives they Liv'd upon the Glory they had Acquir'd in their Youth great Men after 't is true in comparison of others but by no means in comparison of themselves As to my own particular I do certainly believe that since that Age both my Understanding and my Constitution have rather decay'd than improv'd and retir'd rather than advanc'd 'T is possible that with those who make the best use of their Time Knowledg and Experience may grow up and encrease with their Years but the Vivacity Quickness and Steadiness and other peices of us of much greater Importance and much more Essentially our own Languish and Decay Vbi jam validis quassatum est viribus aevi Corpus obstusis ceciderunt viribus artus Claudicat ingenium delirat linquaque mensque When once the Body 's shaken by Times Rage The Blood and Vigour Ebbing into Age The Judgment then Halts upon either Hip The Mind does Doat Tongue into Non-sense Trip. Sometimes the Body first submits to Age sometimes the Soul and I have seen enow who have got a Weakness in their Brains before either in their Hams or Stomach And by how much the more it is a Disease of no great pain to the infected Party and of obscure Symptoms so much greater the danger is And for this reason it is that I complain of our Laws not that they keep us too long to our Work but that they set us to work too late For the Frailty of Life consider'd and to how many Natural and Accidental Rubs it is Obnoxious and Expos'd Birth though Noble ought not to share so large a Vacancy and so tedious a course of Education The End of the First Book MICHEL SEIGNEVR DE MONTAIGNE Printed for T. Bassett M. Gilliflower W. Hensman ESSAYS OF MICHAEL SEIGNEUR DE MONTAIGNE In Three Books With Marginal Notes and Quotations of the cited Authors New rendred into English By CHARLES COTTON Esq The Second Volume LONDON Printed for T. Basset at the George in Fleet-street and M. Gilliflower and W. Hensman in Westminster-Hall 1686. THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE Second Book Chap. 1. OF the Inconstancy of our Actions Pag. 1 Chap. 2. Of Drunkenness 14 Chap. 3. The Custom of the Isle of Cea 30 Chap. 4. To Morrow's a new Day 55 Chap. 5. Of Conscience 59 Chap. 6. Vse makes Perfectness 66 Chap. 7. Of Recompences of Honour 84 Chap. 8. Of the Affection of Fathers to their Children 90 Chap. 9. Of the Arms of the Parthians 123 Chap. 10. Of Books 129 Chap. 11. Of Cruelty 151 Chap. 12. Apology for Raimond de Sebonde 159 Chap. 13. Of Judging of the Death of another 435 Chap. 14. That the Mind hinders it self p. 446 Chap. 15. That our Desires are augmented by Difficulties 447 Chap. 16. Of Glory 457 Chap. 17. Of Presumption 479 Chap. 18. Of Giving the Lye 532 Chap. 19. Of Liberty of Conscience 540 Chap. 20. That we taste nothing pure 546 Chap. 21. Against Idleness 551 Chap. 22. Of Posts 558 Chap. 23. Of ill Means employed to a good End 560 Chap. 24. Of the Roman Grandeur 566 Chap. 25. Not to counterfeit being sick 569 Chap. 26. Of Thumbs 572 Chap. 27. Cowardize the Mother of Cruelty 574 Chap. 28. All Things have their Season 589 Chap. 29. Of Vertue 593 Chap. 30. Of a monstrous Child 605 Chap. 31. Of Anger 607 Chap. 32. Defence of Seneca and Plutarch 619 Chap. 33. The Story of Spurina 630 Chap. 34. Observation of the Means to carry on a War according to Julius Caesar. 642 Chap. 35. Of three good Women 656 Chap. 36. Of the most excellent Men. 668 Chap. 37. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers 680 ESSAYS OF Michael Seigneur de Montaigne The Second Book CHAP. I. Of the Inconstancy of our Actions SUch as make it their business to controul humane Actions do not find themselves in any thing so much perplext as to reconcile them and bring them into the Worlds eye with the same Lustre and Reputation for they do commonly so strangely contradict one another that it seems impossible they should proceed from one and the same Person We find the younger Marius one while a Son of Mars and another the Son of Venus Pope Boniface the Eighth entred says one into his Papacy like a Fox behaved himself in it like a Lyon and died like a Dog And who could believe it to be the same Nero the perfect Image of all Cruelty who having the Sentence of a condemned man brought to him to Sign cried out O that I had never been taught to Write So much it went to his heart to condemn a man to Death All Story is full of such Examples and every man is able to produce so many to himself or out of his own practice or observation that I sometimes wonder to see men of understanding give themselves the trouble of sorting these pieces considering that irresolution appears to me to be the most common and manifest Vice of our Nature Witness the famous Verse of the Player Publius Malum consilium est quod mutari non potest That Counsel's ill that will admit no change There is some possibility of forming a judgment of a man from the most usual methods of his life but considering the natural Instability of our manners and opinions I have often thought even the best Authors a little out in so obstinately endeavouring to make of us any constant and solid Contexture They chuse a general Air of a man and according to that interpret
let them be Gouty on Gods name so they were insensible of pain God gives us leave enough when he is pleased to reduce us to such a condition that to live is far worse than to die 'T is weakness to truckle under infirmities but it 's madnes to nourish them The Stoicks say that it is living according to Nature in a Wise man to take his leave of Life even in the height of prosperity if he do it opportunely and in a Fool to prolong it though he be miserable provided he be indigent of those things which are reputed the necessaries of human life As I do not offend the Law provided against Thieves when I embezel my own Money and cut my own Purse nor that against Incendiaries when I burn my own Wood so am I not under the lash of those made against Murtherers for having depriv'd my self of my own life Hegesius said that as the condition of life did so the condition of death ought to depend upon our own choice And Diogenes meeting the Philosopher Speucippus so blown up with an inveterate Dropsie that he was fain to be carried in a Litter and by him saluted with the complement of I wish you good health no health to thee reply'd the other who art content to live in such a condition And in truth not long after Speucippus weary of so languishing an estate of Life found a means to dye But this does not pass without admitting a dispute For many are of Opinion that we cannot quit this Garrison of the World without the express command of him who has plac'd us in it and that it appertains to God who has plac'd us here not for ourselves only but for his Glory and the service of others to dismiss us when it shall best please him and not for us to depart without his Licence That we are not born for ourselves only but for our Country also the Laws of which require an account from us upon the score of their own interest and have an action of Man-slaughter good against us Or if these fail to take cognizance of the Fact we are punish'd in the other World as deserters of our Duty Proxima deinde tenent maesti Loca qui sibi lethum Insontes peperere manu lucémque perosi Proiecere animas Next these those Melancholick Souls remain Who innocent by their own hands were slain And hating light to voluntary Death Ecclipst their eye-balls and bequeath'd their breath There is more Constancy in suffering the Chain we are tied in than in breaking it and more pregnant evidence of fortitude in Regulus than in Cato 'T is Indiscretion and Impatience that pushes us on to these precipices No accidents can make true Vertue turn her back she seeks and requires Evils Pains and Grief as the things by which she is nourish'd and supported The menaces of Tyrants Wracks and Tortures serve only to animate and rouse her Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido Per damna per caedes ab ipso Ducit opes animumque ferro As in Mount Algidus the sturdy Oak Ev'n from th' injurious Axes wounding stroak Derives new vigour and does further spread By amputations a more graceful head And as another says Non est ut putas virtus Pater Timere vitam sed malis ingentibus Obstare nec se vertere ac retro dare They are mistaken and do judge amiss Who think to fear to live a Vertue is He 's brave the greatest evils can withstand And not retire nor shift to either hand Or as this Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem Fortius ille facit qui miser esse potest The wretched well may laugh at death but he Is braver far can live in misery 'T is Cowardize not Vertue to lye squat in furrow under a Tomb to evade the blows of Fortune Vertue never stops nor goes out of her path for the greatest storm that blows Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidam ferient ruinae Should the World's Axis crack and Sphear fall down The ruins would but crush a fearless Crown And for the most part the flying of other inconveniences brings us to this that endeavouring to evade death we run into the mouth of it Hic rogo non furor est ne moriare mori Can there be greater madness pray reply Than that one should for fear of dying die Like those who for fear of a precipice throw themselves headlong into it Multos in summa pericula misit Venturi timor ipse mali Fortissimus ille est Qui promptus metuenda pati si cominus instent Et differre potest The fear of future ills oft makes men run Into far worse than those they strive to shun But he deserves the noblest Character Dare boldly stand the mischeifs he does fear When they confront him and appear in view And can defer at least if not eschew usque adeo mortis formidine vitae Percipit humanos odium lucisque videndae Vt sibi consciscant maerenti pectore lethum Obliti fontem curarum hunc esse timorem Death unto that degree does some men fright That causing them to hate both life and light They kill themselves in sorrow not aware That this same fear 's the fountaine of that care Plato in his laws assigns an ignominious sepulture to him who has depriv'd his nearest and best freind namely himself of life and his destin'd course of years being neither compell'd so to do by publick judgment by any sad and inevitable accident of fortune nor by any insupportable disgrace but merely pusht on by cowardize and the imbecillity of a timorous soul. And the opinion that makes so little of life is ridiculous for it is our being 't is all we have Things of a nobler and more elevated being may indeed accuse this of ours but it is against nature for us to contemn and make little account of our selves 't is a disease particular to man and not discern'd in any other creatures to hate and despise itself And it is a vanity of the same stamp to desire be something else than what we are The effects oâ— such a desire do not at all concern us for as much as it is contradicted and hindred in it self and he that desires of a man to be made an Anâ—gel wishes nothing for himself he would bâ— never the better for it for being no more whâ—â— should rejoice or be sensible of this benefit foâ— him Debet enim miserè cui fortè aegréque futurum est Ipse quoque esse in eo tum tempore cùm male possit Accidere For it is necessary sure that he Who for the future wretched is to be Should then be by himself inhabited That the events of Fate been frustrated But that the ills he threatned is withall Should rightly in their due appointment fall Security indolency impassibility and the privation of the evils of
any more dispute ran herself through the Body with a Sword Vibius Virius despayring of the safty of his City beseig'd by the Romans and of their mercy in the last deliberation of his Cities Senat after many Remonstrances conducing to that end concluded that the most Noble means to escape Fortune was by their own hands telling them that the Enemy would have them in honor and Hannibal would be sensible how many faithful friends he had abandoned inviting those who approv'd of his advice to go take a good supper he had ready at home where after they had eaten well they would drink togeather of what he had prepar'd a beverage said he that will deliver our Bodies from torments our Souls from injury and our Eyes and Ears from the sence of so many hateful mischiefs as the Conquer'd are to suffer from cruel and implacable Conquerours I have said he taken order for fit persons to throw our Bodies into a funeral pile before my door so soon as we are dead Enow approv'd this high resolution few imitated it seaven and twenty Senators follow'd him who after having tri'd to drown the thought of this fatal determination in Wine ended the feast with the mortal Mess and embracing one another after they had jointly deplor'd the misfortune of their Country some retir'd home to their own houses others staid to be burnt with Vibius in his funeral Pyre and were all of them so long a dying the vapour of the Wine having prepossest the Veines and by that means deferring the effect of the Poison that some of them were within an hour of seeing the Enemy within the walls of Capua which was taken the next morning and of undergoing the miseries they had at so dear a rate endeavour'd to evade Taurea Jubellius another Citizen of the same Country the Consul Fulvius returning from the shameful butcherie he had made of two hundred twenty five Senators call'd him back feircely by his name and having made him stop give the word said he that some body may dispatch me after the Massacre of so many others that thou maist boast to have kill'd a much more valiant Man than thyself Fulvius disdaining him as a man out of hiâ— wits as also having received Letters from Rome contrary to the inhumanity of this Execution which tied his hands Jubellius proceeded since that my Country being taken my freinds dead and having with my own hands slaine my wife and children to rescue them from desolation of this ruine I am deni'd to die the death of my fellow-Citizens let us borrow from vertue the vengeance of this hated life and therewithal drawing a short sword he carried conceal'd about him he ran it thorough his own Bosome falling down backward and expiring at the Consuls feet Alexander laying Seige to a City of the Indies those within finding themselves very hardly set put on a vigorouâ— resolution to deprive him of the pleasure 〈◊〉 his Victory and accordingly burnt themselveâ— in general togeather with their City in despite of his humanity A new kind of Warre where the Enemies sought to save them and they 〈◊〉 lose themselves doing to make themselves sure of death all that men do to secure their lives Astapa a City of Spain finding it seâ—â— weak in walls and defence to withstand the Romans the Inhabitants made a heap of alâ— their riches and furniture in the publick place and having rang'd upon this heap all the woâ—men and children and pil'd them round witâ— wood and other combustible matter to take suddain Fire and left fifty of their young meâ— for the Execution of that whereon they haâ—â— resolv'd They made a deperate sally where for want of power to overcome they caus'd themselves to be every man slain The fifty after having Massacred every living Soul throughout the whole City and put Fire to this Pile threw themselves lastly into it finishing their generous liberty rather after an insensible than after a sorrowful and disgraceful manner giving the Enemy to understand that if fortune had been so pleas'd they had as well the courage to snatch from them Victory as they had to frustrate and render it dreadful and even mortal to those who allured by the splendor of the Gold melting in this flame having approcht it a great number were there suffocated and burnt being kept up from retiring by the crow'd that follow'd after The Abideans being prest by King Philip put on the same resolution but being curbed so short they could not put it in effect the King who abhor'd to see the temerarious precipitation of this Execution the treasure and movables that they had variously condemn'd to Fire and water being first seized drawing off his Souldiers graunted them three days time to kill themselves in that they might do it with more order and at greater ease which space they fill'd with Blood and slaughter beyond the utmost excess of all hostil cruelty So that not so much as any one Soul was left alive that had power to destroy it self There are infinite examples of like Popular conclusions which seem the more feirce and cruel by how much the effect is more universal and yet are really less than when singly executed What arguments and persuasion cannot make upon every individual man they can do upon all the ardour of Society ravishing particular judgments The condemn'd who would live to be executed in the Reign of Tiberius forfeited their goods and were denied the riteâ— of Sepulture those who by killing themselves did anticipate it were enterred and had liberty to dispose of their Estates by Will But men sometimes covet death out of hope of a greater good I desire says St. Paul to be with Christ and who shall rid me of these bands Cleombrotus Ambraciota having read Plato's Phaedo entred into so great a desire 〈◊〉 the life to come that without any other occasion he threw himself into the Sea By which it appears how improperly we call this voluntary dissolution despair to which the eagerness of hope does often encline us and ofteâ— a calme and temperate desire proceeding from a mature and considerate judgment Jacquâ— du Castel Bishop of Soissons in St. Lewis his foreign expedition seing the King and whole Army upon the point of returning into France leaving the affairs of Religion imperfect tool a resolution rather to go into Paradise wherefore having taken solemn leave of his freinds he charg'd alone in the sight of every onâ— into the Enemies Army where he was presently cut to peices In a certain Kingdom 〈◊〉 the new discover'd World upon a day of soâ—lemn Procession when the Idol they adore is drawn about in publick upon a Chariot of wonderful greatness besides that several are then seen cutting of cantells of their quick flesh to offer to him there are a number of others who prostrate themselves upon the place causing themselves to be crusht and broke to peices with the weighty wheels to obtain the veneration of Sanctity after
that purpose produc't a Book from under his Robe wherein he told them was an exact account of his receipts and disbursments but being required to deliver it to the Pronotary to be examined and enrolled he refused saying he would not do himself so great a disgrace and in the presence of the whole Senate tore the Book with his own hands to peices I do not believe that the most fear'd Conscience could have counterfeited so great an assurance He had naturally too high a spirit and was accustomed to too high a fortune says Titus Livius to know how to be criminal and to dispose himself to the meanness of defending his innocency This putting men to the Rack is a dangerous invention and seemes to be rather a tryal of patience than truth Both he who has the fortitude to endure it conceals the truth and he who has not for why should paine sooner make me to confesse what really is than force me to say what is not And on the contrary if he who is not guilty of that whereof he is accused has the courage to undergo those torments why should not he who is guilty have the same so fair a reward as life being in his prospect I think the ground of this invention proceeds from the consideration of the force of Conscience For to the guilty it seemes to assist the Rack to make him confess his fault and to shake his resolution and on the other side that it fortifies the innocent against the torture But when 's all 's don 't is in plain truth a tryal full of incertainty and danger What would not a man say what would not a man do to avoid so intolerable torments Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor Pain the most innocent will make to lye Whence it comes to pass that he whom the Judg has rackt that he may not dye innocent he makes him die both innocent and rackt A thousand and a thousand have charged their own heads by false confessions Amongst which I place Philotas considering the circumstances of the Tryal Alexander put him upon and the progress of his torture But so it is says one that it is the least evill humane weakness could invent very inhumanely notwithstanding and to very little purpose in my opinion Many Nations less Barbarous in this than the Greeks and Romans who call them so repute it horrible and cruel to torment and pull a man to peices for a fault of which they are yet in doubt How can he help your ignorance Are not you unjust that not to kill him without cause do worse than kill him And that this is so do but observe how many ways he had rather die without Reason than undergo this Examination more painful than Execution it self and that oft-times by its extremity prevents Execution and dispatches him I know not where I had this Story but it exactly matches the Conscience of our Justice in this particular A Country woman to a General of very severe Discipline accused one of his Souldiers that he had taken from her Children the little milke she had lest to nourish them withal the Army having consum'd all the rest but of this Proof there was none The General after having caution'd the woman to take good heed to what she said for that she would make herself guilty of a false Accusation if she told a lie and she persisting he presently caused the Souldiers belly to be ript up to clear the truth of the fact and the Woman was found to be in the right An instructive Sentence CHAP. VI. Vse makes Perfectness 'T IS not to be expected that Argument and Instruction though we never so voluntarily surrender our belief to what is read to us should be of force to lead us on so far as to Action if we do not over and above exercise and form the Soul by Experience to the course for which we design it it will otherwise doubtless find it self at a loss when it comes to the pinch of the business This is the reason why those amongst the Philosophers who were ambitious to attain to a greater excellence were not contented to expect the severities of fortune in their retirement and repose of their own habitations lest she should have surpriz'd them raw and unexpert in the Combat but sallied out to meet her and purposely threw themselves into the proof of difficulties Some of which abandon'd Riches to exercise themselves in a voluntary proverty others have sought out labour and an â—usterity of life to inure them to hard-ships and inconveniencies others have deprived themselves of their dearest members as of their sight and instruments of Generation left their too delightful and effeminate service should soften and debauch the stability of their Souls But in dying which is the greatest work we have to do Practice is out of doors and can give us no assistance at all A man may by custom fortisie himself against paines shame necessity and such like accidents but as to death we can experiment it but once and are all Apprentices when we come to it There have antiently been men so excellent managers of their time that they have tried even in death it self to relish and tast it and who have bent their utmost faculties of mind to discover what this passage is but they are none of them come back to tell us the news Nemo expergitus extat Frigida quem semel est vitai pausa sequuta No one was ever known to wake Who once in deaths cold arms a nap did take Canius Julius a noble Roman of singular constancy and vertue having been condemn'd to die by that Beast Caligula besides many admirable testimonies that he gave of his resolution as he was just going to receive the stroke of the Executioner was askt by a Philosoper a freind of his well Canius said he wherabout is your Soul now What is she doing What are you thinking of I was thinking reply'd the other to keep my self ready and the faculties of my mind settled and fixt to try if in this short and quick instant of death I could perceive the motion of the Soul when she parts from the body and whether she has any resentment at the separation that I may after come again if I can to acquaint my freinds with it This man Philosophizes not unto death onely but in death self What a strange assurance was this and what bravery of courage to desire his death should be a lesson to him and to have leisure to think of other things in so great an affair Jus hoc animi morientis habebat This mighty pow'r of mind he dying had And yet I fancy there is a certain way of making it familiar to us and in some sort of making tryal what it is We may gain experience if not entire and perfect yet such at least as shall not be totally useless to us and that may render us more assur'd If we cannot overtake it we
may approach it and view it and if we do not advance so far as to the Fort we may at least discover it and make our selves perfect in the Avenues It is not without reason that we are taught to consider sleep as a resemblance of death With how great facility do we pass from waking to sleeping and with how little concern do we lose the knowledg of light and of ourselves Peradâ—â—nture the faculty of sleeping would seem useless and contrary to nature being it deprives us of all action and sense were it not that by it Nature instructs us that she has equally made us to die as to live and from life presents us the Eternal Estate she reserves for us after it to accustom us to it and to take from us the fear of it But such as have by some violent accident fallen into a swoon and in it have lost all sense these methinks have been very near seeing the true and natural face of death for as to the moment of the passage it is not to be fear'd that it brings with it any pain or displeasure for as much as we can have no feeling without leisure Our sufferings require time which in death is so short and so precipitous that it must necessarily be insensible They are the approaches that we are to fear and those may fall within the limits of experience Many things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect I have past a good part of my age in a perfect and entire health I say not only entire but moreover spritely and wanton This estate so full of verdure jollity and vigour made the consideration of sickness so formidable to me that when I came to experiment it I found the attacques faint and easy in comparison of what I had apprehended Of this I have daily experience If I am under the shelter of a warm room in a stormy and tempestuous night I wonder how People can live abroad and am afflicted for those who are out in the 〈◊〉 If I am there my self I do not wish to be any where else This one thing of being always shut up in a chamber I fancâ—ed insupportable but I was presently inur'd to be so imprison'd a week nay a month togeather And have found that in the time of my health I did much more lament the sick than I think my self to be lamented when I am so and that the force of my imagination enhances near one half of the essence and reality of the thing I hope that when I come to die I shall find the same and that I shall not find it worth the pains I take so much preparation and so much assistance as I call in to undergo the stroak But we cannot give our selves too much advantage at all adventures In the time of our third or second troubles I do not well remember which going one day abroad to take the aire about a league from my own house which is seated in the very Center of all the bustle and mischeif of the late Civil wars of France thinking my self in all security and so near to my retreat that I stood in need of no better Equipage I had taken a horse that went very easy upon his pace but was not very strong Being upon my return home a suddain occasion falling out to make use of this horse in a kind of service that he was not acquainted with one of my train a lusty proper fellow mounted upon a strong German horse that had a very ill mouth but was otherwise vigorous and unfoild to play the Bravo and appear a better man than his fellowes comes thundring full speed in the very track where I was rushing like a Colossus upon the little man and the little horse with such a carreer of strength and weight that he turn'd us both over and over topsy turvy with our heeles in the aire so that there lay the horse over thrown and stun'd with the fall and I ten or twelve paces from him stretcht out at length with my face all batter'd and broken my sword which I had in my hand above ten paces beyond that and my belt broke all to pieces without motion or sence any more than a stock 'T was the only swoon I was ever in till this hour in my life Those who were with me after having used all the means they could to bring me to my self concluding me dead took me up in their arms and carried me with very much difficulty home to my house which was about half a French league from thence Having been by the way and two long hours after given over for a dead man I began to move and to fetch my breath for so great abundance of blood was fall'n into my stomack that Nature had need to rouse her forces to discharge it They then raised me upon my feet where I threw off a great quantity of pure Florid blood as I had also don several times by the way which gave me so much ease that I began to recover a little life but so leisurely and by so small advances that my first sentiments were much neare the approaches of death than life Perche dubbiosa anchor del suo ritorna Non s'assecura attonita la mente Because the Soul her mansion half had quit And was not sure she was return'd to it The remembrance of this accident which is very well imprinted in my memory so naturally representing to me the Image and Idea of death has in some sort reconcil'd me to that untoward accident When I first began to â—pen my eyes after my trance it was with so perplex't so weak and dead a sight that I could yet distinguish nothing and could only discern the light Come quel ch'or apre or chiude Gli occhi mezzo tra'l sonno è l'esser desto As people in the morning when they rise 'Twixt sleep and wake open and shut their eyes As to the functions of the Soul they advanced with the same pace and measure with those of the Body I saw my self all bloody my doublet being stain'd and spotted all over with the blood I had vomited and the first thought that came into my mind was that I had a Harquebuze shot in my head and indeed at the same time there were a great many fir'd round about us Methought my life but just hung upon my lips and I shut my eyes to help methought to thrust it out and took a pleasure in languishing and letting my self go It was an imagination that only superficially sloâ—ed upon my Soul as tender and weak as all the rest but really not only exempt from pain but mixt with that sweetness and pleasure that People are sensible of when they indulge themselves to drop into a slumber I beleive it is the very same condition those People are in whom we see to swoon with weakness in she agonie of death and am of opinion that we lament them without cause supposing
them agitated with greivous dolours or that their Souls suffer under painful thoughts It has ever been my beleif contrary to the opinion of many and particularly of Stephen Boetius that those whom we see so subdued and stupified at the approaches of their end or deprest with the length of the disease or by accident of an Apoplexie or falling Sickness Vi morbi saepe coactus Ante oculos aliquis nostros ut fulminis ictu Concidit spumas agit ingemit fremit artus Desipit extentat nervos torquetur anhelat Inconstanter et in jactando membra fatigat By the disease compell'd so we see some As they were thunder-struk fall groan and foam Tremble stretch writh breath short until at length In various struglings they tire out their strength Or hurt in the head whom we hear to mutter and by fits to utter greivous groanes though we gather from thence some sign by which it seems as if they had some remains of sense and knowledge I have always believ'd I say both the Body and the Soul benumn'd and asleep Vivit est vitae nescius ipse suae He lives but does not know That he does so And could not beleive that in so great a stupefaction of the members and so great a defection of the senses the â—oul could maintain any force within to take cognizance of herself or look into her own condition and that therefore they had no tormenting reflexions to make them consider and be sensible of the misery of their condition and consequently were not much to be lamented I can for my part think of no estate so insupportable and dreadful as to have the Soul spritely and afflicted without means to declare it self as one should say of such who are sent to Execution with their tongues first cut out were it not that in this kind of dying the most silent seems to me the most graceful if accompanied with a grave and constant countenance or of those miserable Prisoners who fall into the hands of the base bloody Souldiers of this Age by whom they are tormented with all sorts of inhumane usage to compel them to some excessive and impossible ransom kept in the mean time in such condition and place where they have no means of expressing or signifying their mind and misery to such as they may expect should releive them The Poets have feign'd some Gods who favour the deliverance of such as suffer under a languishing death Hunc ego Diti Sacrum jussa fero téque isto corpore solvo I by command offer to Pluto this And from that body do the Soul dismiss Both the interrupted words and the short and irregular answers one gets from them somtimes by bawling and keeping a clutter about them or the motions which seem to yeild some consent to what we would have them do are no testimony nevertheless that they live an entire life at least So it happens that in the yawning of sleep before it has fully possest us to perceive as in a dream what is don about us and to follow the last things are said with a perplex't and uncertain hearing which seem but to touch upon the borders of the Soul and make answers to the last words have been spoken to us which have more in them of fortune than sense Now seing I have effectually tried it I make no doubt but I have hitherto made a right judgment For first being in a swoon I labour'd with both hands to rip open the buttons of my doublet for I was without arms and yet I felt nothing in my imagination that hurt me for we have many motions in us that do not proceed from our direction Semianimésque micant digiti ferrúmque retractant And half-dead fingers grope about and feel To grasp again the late abandon'd steel So falling People extend their arms before them by a natural impulse which prompts them to offices and motions without any Commission from us Falciferos memorant currus abscindere membra Vt tremere in terra videatur ab artubus id quod Decidit abscissum cùm mens tamen atque hominis Mobilitate mali non quit sentire dolorem How limbs syth-bearing Chariots lopt they tell Would move and tremble on the ground they fell When he himself from whom the limb was ta'ne Could by the swiftness feel no kind of pain My stomack was so opprest with the coagulated blood that my hands mov'd to that part of their own voluntary motion as they frequently do to the part that itches without being directed by our Will There are several Animals and even Men in whom one may perceive the muscles to stir and tremble after they are dead Every one experimentally knows that there are some members which grow stiff and slag without his leave Now those passions which only touch the outward Bark of us as a man may say cannot be said to be ours to make them so there must be a concurrence of the whole man and the pains which are felt by the hand or the foot while we are sleeping are none of ours As I drew near my own house where the Alarm of my fall was already got before me and that my family were come out to meet me with the hubbub usual in such cases I did not only make some little answer to some questions were askt me but they moreover tell me that I had so much sense as to order that a horse I saw trip and faulter in the way which is mountainous and uneasy should be given to my wife This consideration should seem to proceed from a Soul that retained its functions but it was nothing so with me I knew not what I said or did and they were nothing but idle thoughts in the clouds that were stir'd up by the senses of the eyes and eares and proceeded not from me I knew not for all that or whence I came or whither I went neither was I capable to weigh and consider what was said to me these were light effects that the senses produc't of themselves as of custom what the Soul contributed was in a dream as being lightly toucht lick't and bedew'd by the soft impression of the senses Notwithstanding my condition was in truth very easy and quiet I had no afflictions upon me either for others or my self It was an extream drooping and weekness without any manner of pain I saw my own house but knew it not When they had put me to bed I found an inexpressible sweetness in that repose for I had been damnably tugg'd and lugg'd by those poor People who had taken the pains to carry me upon their Arms a very great and a very ill way and had in so doing all quite tir'd out themselves twice or thrice one after another They offer'd me several remedies but I would take none certainly beleiving that I was mortally wounded in the head And in earnest it had been a very happy death for the weakness of my
understanding depriv'd me of the faculty of discerning and that of my body from the sense of feeling I suffered my self to glide away so sweetly and after so soft and easy a manner that I scarce find any other action less troublesom than that was But when I came again to my self and to reassume my faculties Vt tandem sensus convaluere mei As my lost senses did again return Which was two or three hours after I felt my self on a suddain involv'd in terrible pain having my limbs shatter'd and groun'd to pieces with my fall and was so exceeding ill two or three nights after that I thought once more to die again but a more painful death having concluded my self as good as dead before and to this hour am sensible of the bruises of that terrible shock I will not here omit that the last thing I could make them beat into my head was the memory of this accident and made it be over and over again repeated to me whither I was going from whence I came and at what time of the day this mischance besel me before I could comprehend it As to the manner of my fall that was conceal'd from me in favour to him who had been the occasion and other slimflams were invented to palliate the truth But a long â—â—me aâ—â—er and the very next day that my memory began to return and to represent to me the eâ—â—ate wherein I was at the Instant that I perceived this horse comming full drive upon me for I had seen him come thundring at my heeles and gave my self for gone But this thought had been so suddain that fear had had no leisure to introduce it self it seem'd to me like a flash of lightning that had peirc'd thorough my Soul and that I came from the other World This long Story of so light an accident would appear vain enough were it not for the knowledge I have gain'd by it for my own use for I do really find that to be acquainted with death is no more but nearly to approach it Every one as Pliny says is a good Doctrine to himself provided he be capable of discovering himself near at hand This is not my Doctrine 't is my study and is not the lesson of another but my own and yet if I communicate it it ought not to be ill taken That which is of use to me may also peradventure be useful to another As to the rest I spoile nothing I make use of nothing but my own and if I play the fool 't is at my own expence and no body else is concern'd in 't for 't is a folly that will die with me and that no one is to inherit We hear but of two or three of the Ancients who have beaten this Road and yet I cannot say if it be after this manner knowing no more of them but their names Not one since has followed the track 't is a tickle subject and more nice than it seems to follow a pace so extravagant and uncertain as that of the Soul to penetrate the dark Profundities of their intricate internal windings to choose and lay hold of so many little graces and nimble motions and a new and extraordinary undertaking and that withdraws us from the common and most recommended emploiments of the World 'T is now many years since that my thoughts have had no other aime and level than my self and that I have only pried into and studied my self Or if I study any other thing 't is to lay it up for and to apply it to my self And yet I do not think it a fault if as others do by other much less profitable Sciences I communicate what I have learn't in this affair though I am not very well pleased with what I have writ upon this Subject There is no description so difficult nor doubtless of so great utility as that of a Mans self And withall a Man must curle set out and adjust himself to appear in publick Now I am perpetually tricking my self for I am eternally upon my own description Custome has made all speaking of a Man's self vicious and do's positively interdict it in hatred to the vanity that seems inseparably joyn'd with the testimony men give of themselves I do not know that necessarily follows but allowing it to be true and that it must of necessity be presumption to entertain the people with Discourses of ones self I ought not pursuing my general Design to forbear an action that publishes this Infirmity of mine nor conceal the Fault which I not only practise but profess Notwithstanding to speak my thought freely I do think that the custom of condemning Wine because some people will be drunk is it self to be condemned A man cannot abuse any thing but what is good in it self and I believe that this Rule has only regard to the popular Vice they are Bits with which neither the Saints whom we hear speak so highly of themselves nor the Philosophers nor the Divines will be curb'd neither will I who am as little the one as the other Of what does Socrates treat more largely than of himself To what does he more direct and address the Discourses of his Disciples than to speak of themselves not of the Lesson in the Book but of the Essence and Motion of their Souls We confess our selves Religiously to God and our Confessor and as they are our Neighbours to all the people But some will answer and say that we there speak nothing but Accusation against our selves Why then we say all for our very Vertue it self is faulty and penitable my Trade and Art is to live He that forbids me to speak according to my own Sense Experience and Practice may as well enjoyn an Architect not to speak of Building according to his own knowledge but according to that of his Neighbour according to the knowledge of another and not according to his own If it be Vain-glory for a man to publish his own Vertues why does not Cicero prefer the Eloquence of Hortensius and Hortensius that of Cicero Peradventure they mean that I should give testimony of my self by Works and Effects not barely by Words I chiefly paint my Thoughts an Inform Subject and incapable of Operative Production 'T is all that I can do to couch it in this airery body of the Voice The Wisest and Devoutest Men have liv'd in the greatest Care to avoid all discovery of Works Effects would more speak of Fortune than of me They manifest their own Office and not mine but uncertainly and by conjecture They are but Patterns of some one particular Vertue I expose my self entire 't is a Skeleton where at one view the Veins Muscles and Tendons are apparent every of them in its proper place I do not write my own Acts but my Self and my Essence I am of opinion that a man must be very wise to value himself and equally consciencious to give a true Report be it better or worse
this Death and the Facility of Dying he had acquired by the vigour of his Soul shall we say that it ought to abate any thing of the lustre of his Vertue And who that has his Brain never so little tinctur'd with the true Philosophy can be content to imagine Socrates only free from Fear and Passion in the Accident of his Prison Fetters and Condemnation And that will not discover in him not only Stability and Constancy which was his ordinary Composure but moreover I know not what new Satisfaction and a frolick Chearfulness in his last Words and Actions At the Start he gave with the pleasure of scratching his Leg when his Irons were taken off does he not discover an equal Serenity and Joy in his Soul for being freed from past Inconveniences and at the same time to enter into the Knowledge of things to come Cato shall pardon me if he please his Death indeed is more tragical and more taken notice of but yet this is I know not how methinks finer Aristippus to one that was lamenting his Death The Gods grant me such an one said he A Man discerns in the Souls of these two great Men and their Imitators for I very much doubt whether there was ever their like so perfect a Habitude to Vertue that it was turn'd to a Complection It is no more a laborious Vertue nor the Precepts of Reason to maintain which the Soul is so wracked but the very Essence of their Souls their natural and ordinary Habit. They have rendred it such by a long Practice of Philosophical Precepts having light upon a rich and ingenious Nature The vicious Passions that spring in us can find no Entrance into them The Force and Vigour of their Souls stifle and extinguish irregular Desires so soon as they begin to move Now that it is not more noble by a high and divine Resolution to hinder the Birth of Temptations and to be so form'd to Vertue that the very Seeds of Vice be rooted out than to hinder their Progress and having suffer'd themselves to be surprized with the first Motions of Passions to arm themselves and to stand firm to oppose their Progress and overcome them And that this second Effect is not also much more generous than to be simply endowed with a frail and affable Nature of it self disaffected to Debauchery and Vice I do not think can be doubted for this third and last sort of Vertue seems to render a Man innocent but not vertuous free from doing ill but not apt enough to do well considering also that this Condition is so near Neighbour to Imperfection and Cowardize that I know not very well how to separate the Confines and distinguish them The very name of Good Nature and Innocence are for this reason in some sort grown into Contempt I very well know that several Vertues as Chastity Sobriety and Temperance may come to a Man through Personal Defects Constancy in Danger if it must be so called the Contempt of Death and Patience in Misfortunes may oft times be found in Men for want of well judging of such Accidents and not apprehending them for such as they are Want of Apprehension and Sottishness do sometimes counterfeit vertuous Effects As I have oft seen it happen that Men have been commended for what really merited Blame An Italian Lord once said this in my presence to the disadvantage of his own Nation That the Subtilty of the Italians and the Vivacity of their Conceptions were so great that they foresaw the Dangers and Accidents that might befal them so far off that it must not be thought strange if they were often in War observed to provide for their Safety even before they had discover'd the Peril That we French and Spaniards who were not so cunning went on further and that we must be made to see and feel the danger before we would take the Alarm and that even then we had no Apprehension But the Germans and Swisse more heavy and thick-skull'd had not the Sense to look about them even then when the Blows were falling about their Ears Peradventure he only talk'd so for Mirths sake and yet it is most certain that in War raw Soldiers rush into danger with more Precipitancy than after they have been well cudgell'd Haud ignarus quantùm nova gloria in armis Et praedulce decus primo certamine possit Not ign'rant in the first Essay of Arms How hope of Glory the raw Soldier warms For this reason it is that when we judge of a particular Action we are to consider several Circumstances and the whole Man by whom it is perform'd before we give it a name To instance in my self I have sometimes known my Friends call that Prudence in me which was meerly Fortune and repute that Courage and Patience which was Judgment and Opinion and attribute to me one Title for another sometimes to my advantage and sometimes otherwise As to the rest I am so far from being arriv'd at the first and most perfect degree of Excellence where Vertue is turn'd into Habit that even of the second I have made no great Tryal I have not been very solicitous to curb the Desires by which I have been importun'd My Vertue is a Vertue or rather an Innocence casual and accidental If I had been born of a more irregular Complection I am afraid I should have made scurvy work for I never observ'd any great Stability in my Soul to resist Passions if they were never so little vehement I have not the knack of nourishing Quarrels and Debates in my own Bosom and consequently owe my self no great Thanks that I am free from several Vices Si vitiis mediocribus mea paucis Mendosa est natura alioqui recta velut si Egregio inspersos reprehendas corpore naevos If of small Crimes and few my Nature be To be accus'd and from the great ones free Those Venial Faults will no more spot my Soul Than a fair Body's blemish'd with a Mole I owe it rather to my Fortune than my Reason She has made me to be descended of a Race famous for Integrity and of a very good Father I know not whether or no he has infus'd into me part of his Humours or whether Domestick Examples and the good Education of my Infancy hath insensibly assisted in the Work or if I was otherwise born so Seu Libra seu me Scorpius aspicit Formidolosus pars violentior Natalis horae seu tyrannus Hesperiae Capricornus unde Whether the Ballance weigh'd my future Fate Or Scorpio Lord of my Ascendent sate Or Tyrant Capricorn that rudely sways And ruffles up the Occidental Seas But so it is that I have naturally a Horror for most Vices The Answer of Antisthenes to him who askt him Which was the best Apprentisage To unlearn Evil seems to point at this I have them in Horror I say with a Detestation so Natural and so much my own that
ordinary Executions of Justice how reasonable soever with a steady Eye Some one being to give testimony of Julius Caesar's Clemency he was says he mild and moderate in his Revenges For having compelled the Pyrates to yield by whom he had before been taken Prisoner and put to Ransom forasmuch as they had threatned him with the Cross he indeed condemn'd them to it but it was after they had been first strangled He punished his Secretary Philomon who had attempted to poyson him with no greater severity than a single Death Without naming that Latin Author that dare alledge for a Testimony of Mercy the killing only of those by whom we have been offended It is easie to guess that he was struck with the horrid and inhumane Examples of Cruelty practis'd by the Roman Tyrants For my part even in Justice it self all that exceeds a Simple Death appears to me perfect Cruelty especially in us who ought to have regard to their Souls to dismiss them in a good and calm Condition which cannot be when we have discompos'd them by insufferable Torments Not long since a Souldier who was a Criminal Prisoner perceiving from a Tower where he was shut up that the people began to assemble to the place of Execution and that the Carpenters were busie erecting a Scaffold he presently concluded that the Preparation was for him and therefore entred into a Resolution to kill himself but could find no Instrument to assist him in his Design saving an old rusty Cart-Nayle that Fortune presented to him With this he first gave himself two great Wounds about his Throat but finding those would not do he presently after gave himself a third in the Belly where he left the Nayle sticking up to the head The first of his Keepers that came in found him in this Condition yet alive but sunk down and near expiring by his Wounds To make use of time therefore before he should die and defeat the Law they made hast to read his Sentence Which having done and he hearing that he was only condemn'd to be Beheaded he seem'd to take new Courage accepted of Wine which he had before refus'd and thanked his Judges for the unhop'd for Mildness of their Sentence saying That indeed he had taken a resolution to dispatch himself for fear of a more severe and insupportable Death Having entertain'd an Opinion by the Preparations he had seen in the Place that they were resolved to torment him with some horrible Execution and seem'd to be delivered from Death for having it changed from what he apprehended I should advise that these Examples of Severity by which 't is design'd to retain the people in their Duty might be exercised upon the dead Bodies of Criminals for to see them deprived of Sepulture to see them boyl'd and divided into Quarters would almost work as much upon the Vulgar as the Pain they make the Living to endure though that in effect be little or nothing as God himself says Who kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do I hapned to come by one day accidentally at Rome just as they were upon executing Catena a notorious Robber He was strangled without any Emotion of the Spectators but when they came to cut him in Quarters the Hangman gave not a Blow that the People did not follow with a doleful Cry and with Exclamation as if every one had lent his Feeling to the miserable Carkass Those inhumane Excesses ought to be exercised upon the Bark and not upon the Quick Artaxerxes in almost a like case moderated the Severity of the Ancent Laws of Persia Ordaining that the Nobility who had committed a Fault instead of being whipt as they were us'd to be should be stript only and their Cloaths whipt for them and that whereas they were wont to tear off their Hair they should only take off their High-crown'd Tiara The so devout Egyptians thought they sufficiently satisfied the Divine Justice in Sacrificing Hogs in Effigie and Representation a bold Invention to pay God so Essential a Substance in Picture only and in show I live in a time wherein we abound in credible Examples of this Vice thorough the licence of our Civil Wars and we see nothing in Ancient Histories more extream than what we have proof of every day I could hardly perswade my self before I saw it with my Eyes that there could be found out Souls so cruel and fell who for the sole Pleasure of Murther would commit hack and lop off the Limbs of others sharpen their Wits to invent unusual Torments and new kinds of Deaths without Hatred without Profit and for no other end but only to enjoy the pleasant Spectacle of the Gestures and Motions the lamentable Groans and Crys of a Man in anguish For this is the utmost point to which Cruelty can arrive Vt hominem non iratus non timens tantùm spectaturus occidat That a Man should kill a Man without being angry or without fear only for the Pleasure of the Spectacle For my own part I cannot without Grief see so much as an innocent Beast pursu'd and kil'd that has no Defence and from whom we have receiv'd no Offence at all And that which frequently happens that the Stage we hunt finding himself weak and out of breath seeing no other Remedy surrenders himself to us who pursue him imploring Mercy by his Tears questuque cruentus Atque imploranti similis That Bleeding by his Tears does Mercy crave It has ever been to me a very unpleasing sight and I hardly ever take beast alive that I do not presently turn out Pythagoras bought them of Fishermen and Fowlers to do the same primòque à caede ferarum Incaluisse puto maculatum sanguine ferrum I think 't was Slaughter of wild beasts that made Too docile Man first learn the Killing Trade Those Natures that are sanguinary towards Beasts discover a Natural Propension to Cruelty After they had accustomed themselves at Rome to Spectacles of the Slaughter of Animals they proceeded to those of the Slaughter of Men the Fencers Nature has her self I doubt imprinted in Man a kind of instinct to Inhumanity no body takes pleasure in seeing Beasts play and caress one another but every one is delighted with seeing them dismember and tear one another to pieces And that I may not be laught at for the simpathy I have with them Theologie it self enjoyns us some Favour in their behalf And considering that one and the same Master has lodg'd us together in this Palace for his Service and that they as well as we are of his Family it has reason to enjoyn us some affection and regard to them Pythagoras borrow'd the Metempsycosis from the Egyptians but it has since been receiv'd by several Nations and particularly by our Druids Morte carent animae sempèrque priore relicta Sede novis domibus vivunt hà bitantque receptae Souls never dye but having
left one Seat Into new Houses they Admittance get The Religion of our Ancient Gauls maintain'd that Souls being Eternal never ceased to remove and shift their places from one body to another Mixing moreover with this Fancy some Consideration of Divine Justice For according to the Deportments of the Soul whilst it had been in Alexander they said that God ordered it another body to inhabit more or less painful and proper for its Conditions muta ferarum Cogit vincla pati truculentos ingerit ursis Pradonèsque lupis fallaces vulpibus addit Atque ubi per varios annos per mille figuras Egit Lethaeo purgatos flumine tandem Rursus ad humanae revocat primordia formae The silent Yoak of Brutes he made them wear The Bloody Souls he did enclose in Bears The ravenousin Woolves he wisely shut The sly and cunning he in Foxes put Where after having through successive years And thousand Figures finisht their Carreers Purging them well in Lethe's Flood at last In humane Bodies he the Souls replac't If it had been valiant he lodg'd it in the Body of a Lyon if voluptuous in that of Hog if timorous in that of a Hart or Hare if subtil in that of a Fox and so of the rest till having purified it by this Chastisement it again enter'd into the Body of some other Man Ipse ego nam memini Trojani tempore Belli Panthoides Euphorbus eram For I my self remember in the days O' th' Trojan War that I Euphorbus was As to the Relation betwixt us and Beasts I do not much admit of it nor allow what several Nations and those the most Ancient and most Noble have practised who have not only receiv'd Brutes into their Society but have given them a Rank infinitely above them Esteeming them one while Familiars and Favorites of the Gods and having them in more than humane Reverence and Respect and others knowing no other nor other Divinity but they Belluae à Barbaris propter beneficium consecratae The Barbarians consecrated Beasts out of Opinion of some Benefit received by them Crocodilon adorat Pars haec illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibin Effigies sacri hic nitet aurea Cercopitheci Hic piscem fluminis illic Oppida tota canem venerantur One Country does adore the Crocodile That does inhabit Monster-breeding Nile Another does the Long-bild Ibis dread With poysonous Flesh of ugly Serpents fed And in another place you may behold The Statue of a Monkey shine in Gold Here Men some monstrous Fishes aid implore And there whole Towns a Grinning Dog adore And the very Interpretation that Plutarch gives to this Error which is very well taken is advantageous to them For he says that it was not the Cat or the Oxe for example that the Egyptians ador'd But that they in those Beasts ador'd some Image of the Divine Faculties in this the Patience and Utility in that the Vivacity or as our Neighbours the Burgundians with the Germans the Impatience to see it self shut up by which they represented the Liberty they lov'd and ador'd above all other Divine Faculty and so of the rest But when amongst the more moderate Opinions I meet with Arguments that endeavour to demonstrate the near resemblance betwixt us and Animals how great a share they in our greatest Priviledges and with how great probability they compare and couple us together in earnest I abate a great deal of our Presumption and willingly let fall the Title of that imaginary Sovereignty that some attribute to us over other Creatures But supposing all this were true there is nevertheless a certain Respect and a general Duty of Humanity that ties us not only to Beasts that have Liâ—e and Sense but even to Trees and Plants We owe Justice to Men and Grace and Benignity to other Creatures that are capable of it There is a certain Natural Commerce and Mutual Obligation betwixt them and us neither shall I be afraid to discover the Tenderness of my Nature so childish that I cannot well refuse to play with my Dog when he the most unseasonably importunes me so to do The Turks have Alms and Hospitals for Beasts The Romans had a publick regard to the Nourishment of Geese by whose Vigilancy their Capitol had been preserv'd The Athenians made a Decree that the Mules and Moyles which had serv'd at the building of the Temple call'd Hecatompedon should be free and suffer'd to pasture at their own choice without hindrance The Agrigentines had a common usance solemnly to enter the Beasts they had a kindness for as Horses of some rare qualities Dogs and Birds of whom they had had profit and even those that had only been kept to divert their Children And the Magnificence that was ordinary with them in all other things did also particularly appear in the Sumptuosity and Numbers of Monuments erected to this very end that remain'd in their Beauty several Ages after The Egyptians buried Wolves Bears Crocodiles Dogs and Cats in Sacred Places embalm'd their Bodies and put on Mourning at their Death Cimon gave an honourable Sepulture to the Mares with which he had three times gain'd the Prize of the Course at the Olympick Games The Ancient Xanthippus caus'd his Dog to be inter'd on an Eminence near the Sea which has euer since retain'd the Name And Plutarch says That he made Conscience of selling for a small profit to the Slaughter an Oxe that had been long in his Service CHAP. XII Apology for Raimond de Sebonde LEarning is in truth a very great and a very considerable quality and such as despise it sufficiently discover their own want of Understanding But yet I do not prize it at the excessive rate some others do as Herillus the Philosopher for one who therein places the Sovereign Good and maintain'd that it was only in her to render us wise and contented which I do not believe no more than I do what others have said That Learning is the Mother of all Vertue and that all Vice proceeds from Ignorance which if it be true is subject to a very long Interpretation My House has long been open to Men of Knowledge and is very well known so to be for my Father who govern'd it Fifty years and more inflam'd with the new ardour with which Francis the First embraced Letters and brought them into esteem with great Diligence and Expence hunted after the Acquaintance of Learned Men receiving them at his House as Persons Sacred and that had some particular Inspiration of Divine Wisdom collecting their Sayings and Sentences as so many Oracles and with so much the greater Reverence and Religion as he was the less able to judge for he had no Knowledge of Letters no more than his Predecessors For my part I love them well but I do not adore them Amongst others Peter Bunel a Man of great Reputation for Knowledge in his time having with some others of his sort stayed some days at Montaigne
those that are visible Sebonde applyed himself to this laudable and noble Study and demonstrates to us that there is not any part or member of the World that disclaims or derogates from its Maker It were to do a Wrong to the Divine Bounty did not the Universe consent to our Belief The Heavens the Earth the Elements our Bodies and our Souls all these concur to this if we can but find out the way to use them For this World is a Sacred Temple into which Man is introduced there to contemplate Statues not the Works of a Mortal Hand but such as the Divine Purpose has made the Objects of Sence the Sun the Stars the Waters and the Earth to represent those that are intelligible to us The invisible things of God says St. Paul appear by the Creation of the World his Eternal Wisdom and Divinity being considered by his Works Atque adeo faciem caeli mon invidet orbi Ipse Deus vultusque suus corpusque recludit Sempér volvendo Séque ipsum inculcat offert Vt benè cognosci possit doceátque videndo Qualis eat doceatque suas attendere leges And God himself envies not Men the Grace Of seeing and admiring Heaven's Face But rowling it about does still anew Object its Face and Body to our view And in t ' our Minds himself inculcates so That we may well the mighty Moover know Instructing us by seeing him the cause Of all to rev'rence and obey his Laws Now our Prayers and Humane Discourses are but as Steril and undigested Matter The Grace of God is the Form 'T is that which gives fashion and value to it As the vertuous Actions of Socrates and Cato remain vain and fruitless for not having had the Love and Obedience of the true Creator of all things for their End and Object and for not having known God So is it with our Imaginations and Discourses they have a kind of Body but it is an inform Mass without Fashion and without Light if Faith and Grace be not added to it Faith coming to tinct and illustrate Sebonde's Arguments renders them firm and solid and to that degree that that they are capable of serving for Directions and of being the first Guides to an Elementary Christian to put him into the way of this Knowledge They in some measure form him to and render him capable of the Grace of God by which means he afterward compleats and perfects himself in the true Belief I know a Man of Authority bred up to Letters who has confest to me to have been reduced from the Errors of Miscreancy by Sebonde's Arguments And should they be stripped of this Ornament and of the Assistance and Approbation of the Holy Faith and be looked upon as mere Humane Fancies only to contend with those who are precipitated into the dreadful and horrible Darkness of Irreligion they will even there find them as solid and firm as any others of the same Quality than can be opposed against them so that we shall be ready to say to our Opponents Si melius quid habes accerse vel imperium fer If you have Arguments more fit Produce them or to these submit Let them admit the force of our Reasons or let them shew us others and upon some other Subject better woven and a finer Thread I am unawares half engaged in the second Objection to which I propos'd to make answer in the behalf of Sebonde Some say that his Arguguments are weak and unable to make good what he intends and undertake with great ease to confute them These are to be a little more roughly handled for they are more dangerous and malicious than the first Men willingly wrest the sayings of others to favour their own prejudicate Opinions to an Atheist all Writings tend to Atheism he corrupts the most Innocent Matter with his own Venom these have their Judgments so prepossest that they cannot relish Sebonde's Reasons As to the rest they think we make them very fair play in putting them into the Liberty of our Religion with Weapons merely Human which in her Majesty full of Authority and Command they durst not attack The means that I shall use and that I think most proper to subdue this Frenzy is to crush and spurn under foot Pride and Human Fierceness to make them sensible of the Inanity Vanity and Vileness of Man To wrest the wretched Arms of their Reason out of their Hands to make them bow down and bite the Ground under the Authority and Reverence of the Divine Majesty 'T is to that alone that Knowledge and Wisdom appertain that alone that can make a true Estimate of it self and from which we purloin whatever we value our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God not permits that any one would be More wise than he Let us subdue this Presumption The first Foundation of this Tyranny of the Evil Spirit Deus superbis resistit Humilibus autem dat gratiam God resists the Proud but gives Grace to the Humble Understanding is in all the Gods says Plato and not at all or very little in Men. Now it is in the mean time a great Consolation to a Christian Man to see our Frail and Mortals Parts so fitly suited to our Holy and Divine Faith that when we employ them to the Subjects of their own Mortal and Frail Nature they are not even there more equally or more firmly adjusted Let us see then if Man hath in his power other more forcible and convincing Reasons than those of Sebonde That is to say if it be in him to arrive at any certainty by Arguments and Reasons For St. Augustin disputing against the people has good cause to reproach them with Injustice in that they maintain the part of our Belief to be false that our Reason cannot establish And to shew that a great many things may be and may have been of which our Nature could not sound the Reason and Causes he proposes to them certain known and undoubted Experiments wherein Men confess they see nothing and this he does as all other things with a curious and ingenious Inquisition We must do more than this and make them know that to convince the weakness of their Reason there is no necessity of culling out rare Examples And that it is so defective and so blind that there is no so clear Facility clear enough for it that to it the easie and the hard is all alone that all Subjects equally and Nature in general disclaims its Authority and rejects its Mediation What does Truth mean when she preaches to us to fly wordly Philosophy when she so often inculcates to us That our Wisdom is but Folly in the sight of God That the vainest of all Vanities is Man That the Man who presumes upon his Wisdom does not yet know what Wisdom is and that Man who is nothing if he think himself to be any thing does seduce and deceive himself These Sentences
of the Holy Ghost do so clearly and lively express that which I would maintain that I should need no other proof against Men who would with all Humility and Obedience submit to his Authority But these will be whipt at their own Expence and will not suffer that a Man oppose their Reason but by it self Let us then for once consider a Man alone without foreign Assistance arm'd only with his own proper Arms and unfurnished of the Divine Grace and Wisdom which is all his Honour Strength and the Foundation of his Being Let us see what certainty he has in this fine Equipage Let him make me understand by the force of his Reason upon what Foundations he has built those great Advantages he thinks he has over other Creatures Who has made him believe that this admirable Motion of the Celestial Arch the Eternal Light of those Tapers that roll over his Head the wonderful Motions of that infinite Ocean should be established and continue so many Ages for his Service and Convenience Can any thing be imagined so ridiculous that this miserable and wretched Creature who is not so much as Master of himself but subject to the Injuries of all things should call himself Master and Emperour of the World of which he has not power to know the least part much less to command the whole And this Priviledge which he attributes to himself of being the only Creature in this vast Fabrick that has the Understanding to discover the Beauty and the Parts of it the only one who can return thanks to the Architect and keep account of the Revenues and Disbursements of the World Who I wonder seal'd him this Patent Let us see his Commission for this great Employment Was it granted in favour of the Wise only Few people will be concerned in it Are Fools and Wicked persons worthy so extraordinary a Favour And being the worst part of the World to be preferred before the rest Shall we believe Cicero Quorum igitur causa quis dixerit effectum esse mundum Eorum cilicet animantium quae ratione utuntur Hi sunt Dii Homines quibus profectò nihil est melius For whose sake shall we therefore conclude that the World was made For theirs who have the use of Reason These are Gods and Men than whom certainly nothing can be better We can never sufficiently decry the Impudence of this Conjunction But wretched Creature what has he in himself worthy of such an Advantage To consider the incorruptible Existency of the Celestial Bodies their Beauty Magnitude and continual Revolution by so exact a Rule Cum suspicimus magna Caelestia mundi Templa super stellisque micantibus Aethera fixum Et venit in mentem Lunae Solisque viarum When we above the Heavn'ly Arch behold And the vast Roof studded with Stars of Gold And call to mind the Courses that the Sun And Moon in their alternate Office run To consider the Dominion and Influence those Bodies have not only over our Lives and Fortunes Facta etenim vitas hominum suspendit ab astris Men's Lives and Actions on the Stars depend But even over our Inclinations our Thoughts and Wills which they govern incite and agitate at the Mercy of their Influences Speculataque longè Deprendit tacitis dominantia legibus astra Et totum alterna mundum ratione moveri Fatorùmque vices certis discernere signis Contemplating the Stars he find thaa they Rule by a secret and a silent sway And that th' ennamel'd Sphears which rule above Do ever by alternate Causes move And studying these he also can forsee By certain Signs the turns of Destiny To see that there is not so much as a Man no not a King exempt from this Dominion but that Monarchies Empires and all this lower World follow the Brawl of these Celestial Motions Quantaque quà m parvi faciant discrimina motus Tantum est hoc regnum quod Regibus imperat ipsis How great a change each little motion brings So great the Kingdom is that governs Kings If our Vertue our Vices our Knowledge and this very Discourse we are upon of the power of the Stars and the Comparison we are making betwixt them and us proceed as our Reason supposes from their Favour Furit alter amore Et pontum tranare potest vertere Trojam Alterius sors est scribendis legibus apta Ecce patrem nati perimunt natósque parentes Mutuáque armati coeunt in vulnera fratres Non nostrum hoc bellum est coguntur tanta movere Inque suas ferri paenas lacerandà que membra One Mad in Love may cross the Raging Seas T'oreturn proud Ilium's lofty Palaces Another's Fate inclines him more by far To spend his time at the litigious Bar. Sons kill their Fathers Father kill their Sons And one arm'd Brother 'gainst another runs This War 's not theirs but Fates that spurs them on To shed the Blood which shed they must bemoan If we derive this little Portion of Reason we have from the Bounty of Heaven how is it possible that Reason should ever make us equal to it How subject its Essence and Conditions to our Knowledge Whatever we see in that Body does astonish us quae molitio quae ferramenta qui vectes quae machinae qui ministri tanti operis fuerunt What Contrivance what Tools what Timber what Engines were employed about so stupendious a Work Why do we deprive it of Soul of Life and Discourse Have we discovered in it any immote or insensible Stupidity we who have no Commerce with the Heavens but by Obedience Shall we say that we have discovered in no other Creature but Man the use of a reasonable Soul What have we seen any thing like the Sun Does he cease to be because we have seen nothing like him And do his Motions cease because there are no other like them If what we have not seen is not our Knowledge is wonderfully contracted Quae sunt tantae animi angustiae How narrow are our Vnderstandings Are they not Dreams of Human Vanity to make the Moon a Celestial Earth There to fancy Mountains and Vales as Anaxagoras did There to fix Habitations and Human Abodes and plant Colonies for our convenience as Plato and Plutarch have done Of our Earth to make a beautiful and resplendent Star Inter caetera mortalitatis incommoda hoc est caligo mentium Nec tantùm necessitas errandi sed errorum amor Corruptibile corpus aggravat animam deprimit terrena inhabitatio sensum multa cogitantem Amongst the other inconveniencies of Mortality this is one to have the Vnderstanding clouded and not only a Necessity of Erring but a Love of Error The corruptible Body stupifies the Soul and the Earthly Habition dulls the Faculties of the imagination Presumption is our Natural and Original Disease The most wretched and frail of all Creatures is Man and withal the Proudest He feels and sees himself lodg'd here
some frozen River and turn him out before them to that purpose lay his Ear upon the Banks of the River down to the Ice to listen if from a more remote or nearer Distance he can hear the noise of the Waters Current and according as he finds by that the Ice to be of a less or greater thickness to retire or advance had we not a reason to believe from thence that he had some thoughts that we should have upon the like Occasion and that it is a Ratiocination and Consequence drawn from natural Sence that that which makes a noise runs that which runs is not frozen what is not frozen is liquid and that which is liquid yeilds to Impression For to attribute this to a vivacity of the Sence of Hearing without Meditation and Consequence is a Chimera that cannot enter into the Imagination We are to suppose the same of so many sorts of Subtleties and Inventions with which Beasts secure themselves from and frustrate the Enterprizes we complot against them And if we will make an Advantage even of this that it is in our power to seize them to employ them in our Service and to use them at our Pleasure 't is but still the same Advantage we have over one another We have our Slaves upon these terms and the Climacidae were they not Women in Syria which being on all four serv'd for a Ladder and half Pace by which the Ladies mounted the Coach And the greatest part of free Persons surrender for very trivial Conveniences their Life and Being into the Power of another The Wives and Concubines of the Thracians contend who shall be chosen to be slain upon their Husbands Tomb. Have Tyrants ever fail'd of finding men enough vow'd to their Devotion Some of them moreover adding this necessity of accompanying them in Death as well as Life Whole Armies have obliged themselves after this manner to their Captains The form of the Oath in the rude School of Fencers who were to fight it out to the last was in these Words We swear to suffer our selves to be chain'd burnt hurt and kill'd with the Sword and to endure all that true Gladiators suffer from their Master religiously engaging both Bodies and Souls in his Service Vre meum si vis flamma caput pete ferro Corpus inorto verbere terga seca Wound me with Steel burn off my Head with Fire Or scourge my Shoulders with well-twisted Wire This was an Obligation indeed and yet there were some Years ten thousand who entred into it and lost themselves in it When the Scythians interr'd their King they strangled upon his Body the most beloved of his Concubines his Cupbearer the master of his Horse his Chamberlain the Usher of his Chamber and his Cook And upon his Anniversary they kill'd fifty Horses mounted by fifty Pages that they had empail'd all up the spine of the Back to the Throat and there left them sixt in Triumph about his Tomb. The men that serve us do it better cheap and for a less curious and favorable Usage than that we entertain our Hawkes Horses and Dogs withal To what Solicitude do we not submit for their Convenience I do not think that Servant of the most abject Condition would willingly do that for their Masters that Princes think it an Honor to do for these Beasts Diogenes seeing his Relations solicitous to redeem him from Servitude They are Fools said he 't is that which treats and nourishes and that serves me and they who make so much of Beasts ought rather to be said to serve them than to be serv'd by them And withal they have this of more generous that one Lyon never submitted to another Lyon nor one Horse to another for want of Courage As we go to the Chace of Beasts so do Tigers and Lyons to the Chace of Men and do the same Execution upon one another Dogs upon Hares Pikes upon Tenches Swallows upon Flies and Sparhawkes upon Blackbirds and Larks Serpente ciconia pullos Nutrit inventa per devia rura lacerta Et leporem aut capream famulae Jovis generosae In saltu venantur aves The Storke her young ones nourishes with Snakes And Lizards found in Meadows and in Lakes Joves Eagle trusses Hares and Birds of Prey Hawke in the Woods We divide the Quarry as well as the Pains and Labor of the Chace with our Hawkes and Hounds And above Amphipolis in Thrace the Hawkers and wild Faulcons equally divide the Prey in the middle As also along the Lake Maeotis if the Fishermen do not honestly leave the Wolves an equal Share of what he has caught they presently go and tear his Nets in pieces And as we have a way of fishing that is carried on more by Subtlety than Force namely angling with Lines and Hooks there is also the like amongst other Animals Aristotle say's that the Cuttle-Fish casts a Gut-out of his Throat as long as a Line which he extends and draws back at pleasure and as she perceives some little Fish approach her she lets it nibble upon the end of this Gut lying herself conceal'd in the sand or mud and by little and little draws it in till the little Fish is so near her that at one spring she may surprize it As to what concerns strength there is no Creature in the World expos'd to so many Injuries as Man We need not a Whale an Elephant or a Crocodile nor any such like Animals of which one alone is sufficient to defeat a great number of men to do our business Lice are sufficient to vacate Sylla's Dictatorship and the heart and life of a great and triumphant Emperor is the breakfast of a little contemptible Worm Why should we say that it is only for man by Knowledg improv'd by Art and Meditation to distinguish the things commodious for his being and proper for the cure of his Diseases to know the virtues of Rhubarb and Polypody And when we see the Goates of Candie when wounded with an Arrow amongst a million of Plants choose out Dittanie for their cure and the Tortoise when she has eaten of a Viper immediately go to look out for Origanum to puage her the Dragon to rub and clear his Eyes with Fennel the Storkes to give themselves Clysters of Sea-Water the Elephants to draw not only out of their own Bodies and those of their Companions but out of the Bodies of their Master too witness the Elephant of King Porus whom Alexander defeated the Dart and Javelins thrown at them in Battaile and that so dexterously that we our selves could not do it with so little pain to the Patient why do not we say the same that this is Knowledg and Prudence For to alledg to their disparagement that 't is by the sole instruction and dictate of Nature that they know all this is not to take from them the dignity of Knowledg and Prudence But with greater Argument to attribute it to them than
us to trick our selves with their Beauties and hide our selves under their Spoils their Wool Feathers Hair and Silk Let us observe as to the rest that Man is the sole Animal whose Nudities offend his own Companions and the only one who in his natural Actions withdraws and hides himself from his own Kind And really 't is also an Effect worth Consideration that they who are Masters in the Trade prescribe as a Remedy for amorous Passions the full and free View of the Body a Man desires so that to cool the Ardour there needs no more but at liberty to see and contemplate the Parts he loves Ille quòd obscaenas in aperto corpore partes Viderat in cursu qui fuit haesit amor The Loves that's tilting when those Parts appear Open to View flags in the hot Carreer And altho this Receipt may peradventure proceed from a nice and cold Humor It is notwithstanding a very great sign of our want of Strength and Mettle that Use and Acquaintance should make us disgust one another It is not Modesty so much as Cunning and Prudence that makes our Ladies so Circumspect to refuse us Admittance into their Cabinets before they are painted and trickt up for the publick View Nec Veneres nostras hoc fallit quò magis ipsae Omnia summopere hos vitae post scenta celant Quos retinere volunt adstrictoque esse in amore Of this our Ladies are full well aware Which makes them with such Privacy and Care Behind the Scene all those Defects remove Should check the Flame of those they most do love Whereas in several Animals there is nothing that we do not love and that does not please our Sences So that from their very Excrements we do not only extract wherewith to heighten our Sawces but also our richest Ornaments and Perfumes This Discourse reflects upon none but the ordinary sort of Women and is not so Sacrilegious as to comprehend those Divine Supernatural and extraordinary Beauties which we see shine amongst us like Stars under a Corporeal and Terrestial Vayle As to the rest the very Share that we allow to Beasts of the bounty of Nature by our own Confession is very much to their Advantage We attribute to our selves imaginary and fantastick Goods future and absent Goods for which human Capacity cannot of her self be Responsible Or Goods that we falsly attribute to our selves by the Licence of Opinion as Reason Knowledg and Honor And leave to them for their Divident Essential Maniable and Palpable Goods as Peace Repose Security Innocence and Health Health I say the fairest and richest Present that Nature can make us Insomuch that the Philosopher even the Stoick is so bold as to say that Heraclytus and Pherecides could they have truck'd their Wisdom for Health and have deliver'd themselves the one of his Dropsie and the other of the lowsy Disease that tormented him by the bargain they had done well By which they set a greater Value upon Wisdom comparing and putting it in the Ballance with Health than they do in this other Proposition which is also theirs They say that if Circe had presented Vlysses with two Potions the one to make a Fool become a Wise-Man and the other to make a Wise-Man become a Fool that Vlysses ought rather to have chosen the last than to consent that Circe had chang'd his human Figure into that of a Beast And say that Wisdom it self would have spoke to him after this manner Forsake me let me alone rather than lodg me under the Body and Figure of an Ass. How The Philosophers then will abandon this great and divine Wisdom for this corporal and terrestrial Covering It is than no more by Reason by Discourse and by the Soul that we excel Beasts 'T is by our Beauty our fair Complexion and our fine symmetry of Parts for which we must quit our Intelligence our Prudence and all the rest Well I accept this natural and free Confession Certainly they knew that those Parts upon which we so much value our selves are no other than meer Fancy If Beasts then had all the Virtue Knowledg Wisdom and Stoical Perfection they would still be Beasts and would not be comparable to Man Miserable Wicked and a Madman For in fine whatever is not as we are is nothing considerable And God to procure himself an Esteem amongst us must put himself into that Shape as we shall shew anon By which it does appear that it is not upon any true ground of Reason but by a foolish Pride and vain Opinion that we prefer our selves before other Animals and separate our selves from their Society and Condition But to return to what I was upon before we have for our part Inconstancy Irresolution Incercitude Sorrow Superstition Solicitude of things to come even after we shall be no more Ambition Avarice Jealousy Envy Irregular Frantick and Untam'd Appetites War Lying Disloyalty Detraction and Curiosity Doubtless we have strangely overpay'd this Fine upon which we so much glorify our selves and this Capacity of Judging and Knowing if we have bought it at the Price of this infinite number of Passions to which we are eternally subject Unless we shall yet think fit as Socrates does to add to the Counterpoise that notable Prerogative above Beasts that whereas Nature has prescrib'd them certain Seasons and Limits for the Delights of Venus she has given us the Reins at all Hours and all Seasons Vt vinum aegrotis quia prodest rarò nocet saepissime melius est non adhibere omnino quà m spe dubiae salutis in apertam perniciem incurrere Sic haud scio an melius fuerit humano generi motum istum celerem cogitationis acumen solertiam quam rationem vocamus qoniam pestifera sint multis admodum paucis salutaria non dari omnimo quà m tam munificè tam largè dari As it falls out that Wine often hurts the Sick and very rarely does them good it is better not to give them any at all than to run into an apparent Danger out of hope of an incertain Benefit So I know not whether it had not been better for Mankind that this quick Motion this penetrancy of Imagination this Subtlety that we call Reason had not been given to Man at all considering how pestiferous it is to many and healthful but to few than to have been conferr'd in so abundant manner and with so liberal a Hand Of what Advantage can we conceive the Knowledg of so many things was to Varro and Aristotle Did it exempt them from human Inconveniences Were they by it freed from the Accidents that ly heavy upon the Shoulders of a Porter Did they extract from their Logick any Consolation for the Gout Or for knowing that the Humour is lodged in the Joints did they feel it the less Have they compounded with Death by knowing that some Nations rejoice at his Approach Or with Cuckoldry by knowing that in some part
yield and give up themselves to their natural Inclinations to the Power and Impulse of Passions to the Constitution of Laws and Customs and to the Tradition of Arts. Non enim nos Deus ista scire sed tantummodo uti voluit For God would not have us know but only use those things They suffer their ordinary Actions to be guided by those things without any Dispute or Judgment For which Reason I cannot consent to what is said of Pyrrho They represent him stupid and immoovable leading a kind of Savage and Insociable Life standing the justle of Carts going upon Precipices and refusing to accommodate himself to the Laws This is to enhaunce upon his Discipline He would never make himself a Stock or a Stone he would shew himself a living Man Discoursing Reasoning Enjoying all natural Conveniences and Pleasures employing and making use of all his corporal and spiritual Faculties in Rule and Reason The fantastick imaginary and false Privileges that Man has usurp'd of Lording it Ordaining and Establishing he has utterly quitted and renounc'd Yet there is no Sect but is constrain'd to permit her Sage to follow several things not Comprehended Perceiv'd or Consented to if he means to live And if he goes to Sea he follows that Design not knowing whether his Voyage shall be successful or no and only insists upon the Tightness of the Vessel the Experience of the Pilot and the Convenience of the Season and such probable Circumstances After which he is bound to go and suffer himself to be govern'd by Apparences provided there be no express and manifest Contrariety in them He has a Body he has a Soul the Senses push them the Mind spurs them on And altho he do not find in himself this proper and singular sign of Judging and that he does perceive that he ought not to engage his Consent considering that there may be some false equal to these true Apparences yet does he not for all that fail of carrying on the Offices of his Life with great Liberty and Convenience How many Arts are there that profess to consist more in Conjecture than Knowledg That decide not true and false and only follow that which seems the one or the other There are say they true and false and we have in us wherewith to seek it but not to make it stay when we touch it We are much more prudent in letting our selves be carried away by the swing of the World without Inquisition A Soul clear from Prejudice has a marvailous Advance towards Tranquillity and Repose Men that judg and controul their Judges do never duly submit to them How much more docile and easy to be govern'd both in the Laws of Religion and civil Politie are simple and incurious Minds than those over-vigilant Wits that will still be prating of Divine and Human Causes There is nothing in human Invention that carries so great a shew of likelyhood and utility as this This present Man naked and empty confessing his natural Weakness fit to receive some foreign Force from above unfurnish'd of Human and therefore more apt to receive into him the Divine Knowledg undervaluing his own Judgment to make more Room for Faith Neither beleiving amiss nor establishing any Doctrine against the Laws and common Observances Humble Obedient Disciplinable Studious a sworn Enemy of Heresy and consequently freeing himself from vain and irreligious Opinions introduc'd by false Sects Sectarys and Hereticks 'T is a blank Paper prepared to receive such Forms from the Finger of God as he shall please to write upon it The more we resign and commit our selves to God and the more we renounce our selves of the greater value we are Take in good part says Eclesiastes the things that present themselves to thee as they seem and tast from Hand to Mouth The rest is out of thy Knowledg Dominus novit cogitationes hominum quoniam vanae sunt The Lord knoweth the Heart of Men that they are but Vanity Thus we see that of three general Sects of Philosophy two make open profession of Doubt and Ignorance and in that of the Dogmatists which is the third it is easy to discover that the greatest part of them only assume this face of Confidence and Assurance that they may have the better Grace They have not so much thought to establish any Certainty for us as to shew us how far they have proceeded in their search of Truth quam docti fingunt magis quà m norunt Which the learned rather feign than know Timaeus being to inâ—â—ruct Socrates in what he knew of the Gods the World and Men proposes to speak to him as a Man to a Man and that it is sufficient if his Reasons are probable as those of another For that exact Reason were neither in his nor any other mortal Hand Which one of his Followers has thus imitated Vt potero explicabo nec tamen â—t Pythius Apollo certa ut sint fixa quae dixero Sed ut homunculus probabilia conjectura sequens I will as well as I am able explain yet not as Pythius Apollo that what I say should be fix'd and certain but like a Man that follows Probabilities by Conjecture And that other upon the natural and common Subject of the Contempt of Death he has elsewhere translated from the very Words of Plato Si fortè de Diorum natura ortumque Mundi disserentes minus id quod habemus in animo consequimur haud erit mirum Aequum est enim meminisse me qui disseram hominem esse vos qui judicetis Vt si probabilia dicentur nihil ultra requiratis If perchance when we discourse of the Nature of Gods and the Worlds Original we cannot do it as we desire it will be no great Wonder For it is just you should remember that both I who speak and you who are to judg are Men So that if probable things are deliver'd you should require and expect no more Aristotle does ordinarily heap up a great number of other Opinions and Beliefs to compare them with his own and to let us see how much he has gone beyond them and how much nearer he approaches to Possibility and likelyhood of Truth For Truth is not to be judg'd by the Authority and Testimony of others which made Epicurus religiously avoid quoting them in his Writings This is the Prince of all Dogmatists and yet we are told by him that much Knowledg does administer many Occasions of doubting more In earnest we see him sometimes so shrowd and muffle up himself in so thick and so inexplicable Obscurity that we know not what use to make of his Advice It is in effect a Pyrrhonisme under a concluding and determining Form Hear Cicero's Protestation who expounds to us anothers Fancy by his own Qui requirunt quid de quaque re ipsi sentiamus curiosius id faciunt quam necesse est Haec Philosophiae ratio contra omnia disserendi nullamque rem
shameful Necessities Offering it our Aliments to eat presenting it with our Dances Masquerades and Farces to divert it with our Vestments to cover it and our Houses to inhabit caressing it with the Odors of Incense and the Sounds of Musick Festons and Nosegayes And to accommodate it to our vicious Passions flattering his Justice with inhuman Vengeance that is delighted with the Ruin and Dissipation of things by it created and preserv'd As Tiberius Sempronius who burnt the rich Spoils and Arms he had gained from the Enemy in Sardignia fer a Sacrifice to Vulcan And Paulus Emylius those of Macedonia to Mars and Minerva And Alexander arriving at the Indian Ocean threw several great Vessels of Gold into the Sea in Favour of Thetis and moreover loading her Altars with a slaughter not of innocent Beasts only but of Men also as several Nations and ours amongst the rest were ordinarily used to do And I believe there is no Nation under the Sun that has not done the same Sulmone creatos Quatuor hic juvenes totidem quos educat Vfens Viventes rapit inferias quos immolet umbris At Sulmo born he took of young Men four Of those at Vfens bred as many more Of these alive in most inhuman wise To offer an infernal Sacrifice The Getes hold themselves to be Immortal and that their Death is nothing but a Journey towards Zamolxis Once in five Years they dispatch some one amongst them to him to entreat of him such Necessaries as they stand in need of Which Envoy is chosen by Lot and the form of his Dispatch after having been instructed by Word of Mouth what he is to deliver is that of the Assistants three hold out so many Javelins against which the rest throw his Body with all their Force If he happen to be wounded in a mortal Part and that he immediately dye 't is reputed a certain Argument of Divine Favor but if he escape he is look'd upon as a wicked and execrable Wretch and another is dismist after the same manner in his stead Amestris the Mother of Xerxes being grown old caus'd at once fourteen young Men of the best Families of Persia to be buried alive according to the Religion of the Country to gratify some infernal Deity And yet to this Day the Idols of Temixtitan are cemented with the Blood of little Children and they delight in no Sacrifice but of these pure and infantine Souls a Justice thirsty of innocent Blood Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Such impious Use was of Religion made So many Ills and Mischiefs to persuade The Carthaginians immolated their own Children to Saturn and who had none of their own bought of others the Father and Mother being in the mean time obliged to assist at the Ceremony with a gay and contented Countenance It was a strange Fancy to gratify the Divine Bounty with our Affliction like the Lacedemonians who regal'd their Diana with the tormenting of young Boys which they caus'd to be whip'd for her Sake very often to Death It was a savage Humor to think to gratify the Architect by the Subversion of his Building and to think to take away the Punishment due to the Guilty by punishing the Innocent And that poor Iphigenia at the Port of Aulis should by her Death and being Sacrific'd acquit towards God the whole Army of the Greeks from all the Crimes they had committed Et casta incestè nubendi tempore in ipso Hostia concideret mactatu maesta parentis And that the chast should in her nuptial Band Dye by a most unnatural Fathers Hand And that the two noble and generous Souls of the two Decii the Father and the Son to encline the Favour of the Gods to be propitious to the Affairs of Rome should throw themselves headlong into the thickest of the Enemy Quae fuit tanta Deorum iniquitas ut placari populo Romano non possent nisi tales viri occidissent How great an Injustice in the Gods was that that they could not be reconcil'd to the People of Rome unless such Men perished To which may be added that it is not in the Criminal to cause himself to be scourg'd according to his own Measure nor at his own time but that it purely belongs to the Judg who considers nothing as Chastisements but the Penalty that he appoints and cannot call that Punishment which proceeds from the Consent of him that suffers The Divine Vengeance presupposes an absolute Dissent in us both from its Justice and our own Penalty And therefore it was a ridiculous Humor of Polycrates the Tyrant of Samos who to interrupt the continued Course of his good Fortune and to ballance it went and threw the dearest and most precious Jewel he had into the Sea beleiving that by this voluntary and antedated Mishap he brib'd and satisfied the Revolution and Vicissitude of Fortune and she to delude his Folly ordered it so that the same Jewel came again into his Hands found in the Belly of a Fish And then to what end are those Tearings and Demembrations of the Corybantes the Menades and in our times of the Mahometans who slash their Faces Bosoms and their Limbs to gratify their Prophet Seeing that the Offence lies in the Will not in the Breast Eyes Genitories in the Beauty the Shoulders or the Throat Tantus est perturbatae mentis sedibus suis pulsae furor ut sic dii placentur quemadmodum ne homines quidem saeviunt So great is the Fury and Madness of troubled Minds when once displac'd from the Seat of Reason As if the Gods should be appeas'd with what even Men are not so mad as to approve The use of this natural Contexture has not only respect to us but also to the Service of God and other Men. And 't is unjust willingly to wound or hurt it as to kill our selves upon any Pretence whatever It seems to be great Cowardize and Treason to exercise Cruelty upon and to destroy the Functions of the Body that are stupid and servile to spare the Soul the Solicitude of Governing them according to Reason Vbi iratos Deos timent qui sic propitios habere merentur In regiae libidinis voluptatem castrati sunt quidam sed nemo sibi ne vir esset jubente Domino manus intulit Where are they so afraid of the anger of the Gods as to merit their Favour at that rate Some indeed have been made Eunuchs for the Lust of Princes But no Man at his Masters Command has put his own Hand to unman himself So did they fill their Religion with several ill Effects saepius olim Religio peperit scelerosa atque impia facta In elder times Religion did commit notorious Crimes Now nothing of ours can in any sort be compared or likened unto the Divine Nature which will not blemish and smut it with so much Imperfection How can that infinite Beauty Power and Bounty admit of
any Correspondence or Similitude to so abject things as we are without extream Wrong and manifest Dishonor to his Divine Greatness Infirmum Dei fortius est hominibus Et stultum Dei sapientius est hominibus For the Foolishness of God is wiser than Men and the Weakness of God is stronger than Men. Stilpo the Philosopher being ask'd whether the Gods were delighted with our Adorations and Sacrifices You are Indiscreet answered he let us withdraw apart if you talk of such things Nevertheless we prescribe him Bounds we keep his Power besieg'd by our Reasons I call our Ravings and Dreams Reason with the Dispensation of Philosophy which says that the wicked Man and even the Fool go Mad by Reason but by a particular form of Reason We will subject him to the feeble Apparences of our Understanding him who has made both us and our Knowledg Because that nothing is made of nothing God therefore could not make the World without Matter What has God put into our Hands the Keys and most secret Springs of his Providence Is he oblig'd not to exceed the Limits of our Knowledg Put the Case O Man that thou hast been able here to mark some Footsteps of his Effects Dost thou therefore think that he has employed all he can and has crowded all his Forms and Idea's in this Work Thou seest nothing but the Order and Revolution of this little Vault under which thou art lodged if thou dost see so much Whereas his Divinity has an infinite Jurisdiction beyond This Part is nothing in Comparison of the Whole omnia cum caelo terráque marique Nil sunt ad summam summai totius omnem All things both Heaven Earth and Sea do fall Short in the Account with the great All of All. 'T is a municipal Law that thou alledgest thou knowest not what is Universal Tye thyself to that to which thou art subject but not him he is not of thy Brotherhood thy Fellow-Citizen or Companion If he has in some sort communicated himself unto thee 't is not to debase himself to thy littleness nor to make thee Comptroler of his Power A human Body cannot fly to the Clouds 'T is for thee the Sun runs every day his ordinary Course The Bounds of the Seas and the Earth cannot be confounded The Water is Unstable and without Firmness A Wall unless it be broken is impenetrable to a solid Body A man cannot preserve his Life in the Flames he cannot be both in Heaven and upon Earth and corporally in a thousand places at once 'T is for thee that he has made these Rules 't is thee that they concern He has manifested to Christians that he has enfranchis'd them all when it pleased him And in truth why Almighty as he is should he have limited his Power within any certain Bounds In favour of whom should he have renounced his Privilege Thy Reason has in no other thing more of likelyhood and Foundation than in that wherein it persuades thee that there is a plurality of Worlds Terramque solem lunam mare caetera quae sunt Non esse unica sed numero magis innumerali That Earth Sun Moon Sea and the rest that are Not single but innumerable were The most eminent Wits of elder times believed it and some of this Age of ours compelled by the apparences of human Reason do the same Forasmuch as in this Fabrick that we behold there is nothing single and one cùm in summa res nulla sit una Vnica quae gignatur Et unica soláque crescat Since nothing's single in this mighty Mass That can alone beget alone encrease And that all the kinds are multiplied in some number By which it seems not to be likely that God should have made this Work only without a Companion And that the Matter of this Form should have been totally drain'd in this sole Individual Quare etiam atque etiam tales fateare necesse est Esse alios alibi congressus materiai Qualis hic est avido complexu quem tenet aether Wherefore 't is necessary to confess That there must elsewhere be the like congress Of the like matter which the airy space Conteins holds with a most strict Embrace Especially if it be a living Creature which its motions renders so credible that Plato affirms it and that many of our People do either confirm or dare not deny No more than that ancient Opinion that the Heaven the Stars and other Members of the World are Creatures compos'd of Body and Soul Mortal in respect of their Composition but Immortal by the determination of the Creator Now if there be many Worlds as Democritus Epicurus and almost all Philosophy has believ'd what do we know but that the Principles and Rules of this of ours may in like manner concern the rest They may peradventure have another Form and another Policy Epicurus supposes them either like or unlike We see in this World an infinite difference and variety only by distance of Places Neither the Corn Wine nor any of our Animals are to be seen in that new corner of the World discovered by our Fathers 't is all there another thing And in times past do but consider in how many parts of the World they had no Knowledg either of Bacchus or Ceres If Pliny and Herodotus are to be believed there are in certain Places a kind of Men very little resembling us And there are mungrel and ambiguous Forms betwixt the human and brutal Natures There are Countries where men are born without Heads having their Mouth and Eyes in their Breast Where they are all Hermaphodrites where they go on all four where they have but one Eye in the Forehead and a Head more like a Dog than one of us Where they are half Fish the lower part and live in the Water Where the Women bear at five years old and live but eight Where the Head and Skin of the Forehead is so hard that a Sword will not touch it but rebounds again Where Men have no Beards Nations that know not the use of Fire and others that eject Seed of a black Colour What shall we say of those that naturally change themselves into Woolves Colts and then into men again And if it be true as Plutarch says that in some place of the Indies there are men without Mouths who nourish themselves with the smell of certain Odours how many of our Descriptions are false He is no more risible nor peradventure capable of Reason and Society The disposition and cause of our internal Composition would then for the most part be to no purpose nor of no use moreover how many things are there in our own Knowledg that oppose those fine Rules we have cut out for and prescribed to Nature And yet we must undertake to circumscribe God himself How many things do we call miraculous and contrary to Nature This is done by every Nation and by every Man according to
truly good and happy Being appertain'd only to God and that the wise Man had nothing but a shadow and resemblance of it How temerariously have they bound God by Destiny a thing that by my consent none that bears the Name of a Christian shall ever do again and both Thales Plato and Pythagoras have enslav'd him to Necessity This Arrogancy of attempting to discover God with our weak Eyes has been the Cause that an eminent Person of our Nation has attributed to the Divinity a corporal Form and is the reason of what happens amongst us every day of attributing to God important Events by a particular Assignation Because they sway with us they conclude that they also sway with him and that he has a more intent and vigilant Regard to them than to others of less Moment or of ordinary Course Magna Dii curant parva negligunt The Gods are concerned at great matters but slight the small Observe his Example he will clear this to you by his Reason Nec in regnis quidem Reges omnia curant Neither indeed do Kings in their Administration take notice of all the least Concerns As if to that King of Kings it were more and less to subvert a Kingdom or to move the Leaf of a Tree Or as if his Providence acted after another manner in enclining the Event of a Battle than in the leap of a Flea The hand of his Government is laid upon every thing after the same manner with the same Power and Order Our Interest does nothing towards it our Inclinations and Measures sway nothing with him Deus ita artifex magnus in magnis ut minor non sit in parvis God is so great an Artificer in great things that he is no less in the least Our Arrogancy sets this blasphemous Comparison ever before us Because our Enployments are a Burthen to us Strato has curteously been pleased to exempt the Gods from all Offices as their Pirests are He makes Nature produce and support all things and with her Weights and Motions makes up the several parts of the World discharging human Nature from the awe of divine Judgments Quod beatum aeternumque sit id nec habere negotii quicquam nec exhibere alteri What is Blessed and Eternal has neither any Business it self nor gives any to another Nature will that in like things there should be a like Relation The infinite number of Mortals therefore concludes a like number of Immortals the infinite things that kill and destroy presuppose as many that preserve and profit As the Souls of the Gods without Tongue Eyes or Ear do every one of them feel amongst themselves what the other feel and judg our Thoughts So the Souls of Men when at liberty and loosed from the Body either by Sleep ore some Extasie divine foretel and see things which whilst join'd to the Body they could not see Men says St. Paul professing themselves to be wise they became Fools and changed the Glory of uncorruptible God into an Image made like corruptible Man Do but take notice of the jugling in the Ancient Deifications After the great and stately Pomp of the Funeral so soon as the Fire began to mount to the top of the Pyramid and to catch hold of the Hearse where the Body lay they at the same time turn'd out an Eagle which flying upward signified that the Soul went into Paradice We have yet a thousand Medals and particularly of that vertuous Fostina where this Eagle is represented carrying these deified Souls with their Heels upwards towards Heaven 'T is pity that we should fool our selves with our own Fopperies and Inventions Quod finxere timent Like Children who are frighted with the same Face of their Play-fellow that they themselves had smear'd and smutted Quasi quicquam infelicius sit homine cui sua figmenta dominantur As if any thing could be more unhappy than Man who is insulted over by his own Imagination 'T is far from honoring who made us to honor him that we have made Augustus had more Temples than Jupiter serv'd with as much Religion and belief of Miracles The Thracians in return of the Benefits they had receiv'd from Agesilaus coming to bring him word that they had canoniz'd him Has your Nation said he to them that Power to make Gods of whom they please Pray first deifie some one amongst your selves and when I shall see what Advantage he has by it I will thank you for your Offer Man is certainly stark mad he cannot make a Flea and yet he will be making Gods by Dozens Hear what Trismegestus says in praise of our Sufficiency Of all the wonderful things it surmounts all Wonder that Man could find out the divine Nature and make it And take here the Arguments of the School of Philosophy it self Nosse cui Divos caeli numina soli Aut soli nescire datum To whom to know the Deities of Heav'n Or know he knows them not alone 't is given If there is a God he is a living Creature if he be a living Creature he has some Sense and if he has Sense he is subject to Corruption If he be without a Body he is without a Soul and consequently without Action And if he has a Body it is perishable Is not here a Triumph We are incapable of having made the World there must then be some more excellent Nature that has put a Hand to the Work It were a foolish and ridiculous Arrogance to esteem our selves the most perfect thing of the Vniverse There must then be something that is better and more perfect and that must be God When you see a stately and stupendious Edifice though you do not know who is the Owner of it you would yet conclude it was not built for Rats And this divine Structure that we behold of the Celestial Palace have we not reason to beleive that it is the Residence of some Possessor who is much greater than we Is not the most Supream always the most Worthy And we are subjected to him Nothing without a Soul and without Reason can produce a living Creature capable of Reason The World produces us the World then has Soul and Reason Every part of us is less than we We are part of the World the World therefore is endued with Wisdom and Reason and that more abundantly than we 'T is a fine thing to have a great Government The Government of the World then appertains to some happy Nature The Stars do us no harm they are then full of Bounty We have need of Nourishment then so have the Gods also and feed upon the Vapours of the Earth Wordly Goods are not Goods to God therefore they are not Goods to us Offending and being Offended are equally Testimonies of Imbecillity 'T is therefore folly to fear God God is good by his Nature Man by his Industry which is more The divine and human Wisdom have no other Distinction
thing By the means of which every thing is known and understood This Answer would be good amongst Cannibals who injoy the happiness of a long quiet and peaceable Life without Aristotle's Precepts and without the knowledge of the Name of Physicks This Answer would peradventure be of more value and greater force than all those they borrow from their Reason and Invention Of this all Animals and all where the power of the Law of Nature is yet pure and simple but those they have renounc'd would be as capable as we They need not tell us it is true for we see and feel it to be so They must tell me whether I really feel what I think I do and if I do feel it they must then tell me why I feel it and how and what Let them tell me the Name Original the Part and Junctures of Heat and Cold the Qualities of the Agent and Patient Or let them give up their Profession which is not to admit or approve of any thing but by the way of Reason that is their Test in all sorts of Essays But certainly 't is a Test full of Falsity Error Weakness and Defect Which way can we better prove it than by it self If we are not to believe her when speaking of her self she can hardly be thought fit to judge of Exotick things if she know any thing it must at least be her own Being and Abode She is in the Soul and either a part or an effect of it For true and essential Reason from which we by a false Colour borrow the Name is lodg'd in the Bosom of the Almighty There is her Habitation and Recess and 't is from thence that she imparts her rays when God is pleas'd to impart any beam of it to Mankind as Pallas issued from her Father's Head to communicate her self to the World Now let us see what Human Reason tells us of her self and of the Soul Not of the Soul in general of which almost all Philosophy makes the Celestial and first Bodies Participants Nor of that which Thales attributed to things which themselves are reputed inanimate drawn on so to do by the Consideration of the Load-stone But of that which appertains to us and that we ought the best to know Ignoratur enim quae sit natura animai Nata sit an contrà nascentibus insinuetur Et simul intereat nobifcum morte dirempta An tenebras Orci visat vastásque lacunas An pecudes alias divinitus insinuet se. For none the Nature of the Soul doth know Whether that it be born with us or no Or be infus'd into us at our Birth And dyes with us when we return to Earth Or does descend to the black Shades below Or into other Animals does go Crates and Dicaearchus were of Opinion that there was no Soul at all but that the Body thus stirs by a Natural Motion Plato that it was a Substance moving of it self Thales a Nature without repose Asclepiades an exercising of the Senses Hesiod and Anaximander a thing compos'd of Earth and Water Parmenides of Earth and Fire Empedocles of Blood Sanguineam vomit ille animam He vomits up his bloody Soul Possidonius Cleanthes and Galen that it was heat or a hot Complexion Igneus est ollis vigor caelestis origo Their Vigour is of Fire and does prove It self descended from the Gods above Hippocrates a Spirit difus'd all over the Body Varro that it was an Air received at the Mouth heated in the Lungs moistned in the Heart and diffus'd throughout the whole Body Zeno the Quintessence of the four Elements Heraclitus Ponticus that it was the Light Xenocrates and the Egyptians a Mobile Number The Chaldaeans a Vertue without any determinate Form Habitum quendam vitalem corporis esse Harmoniam Graeci quam dicunt A vital Habit in Man's Frame to be Which by the Greeks is call'd a Harmony Let us not forget Aristotle who held the Soul to be that which naturally causes the Body to move which he calls Entelechia with as cold an Invention as any of the rest For he neither speaks of the Essence nor of the Original nor of the Nature of the Soul only takes notice of the Effect Lactantius Seneca and most of the Dogmatists have confessed that it was a thing they did not understand And after all this enumeration of Opinions Harum sententiarum quae vera fit Deus aliquis viderit Says Cicero Of these Opinions which is the true let some God determine I know by my self says St. Bernard how incomprehensible God is seeing I cannot comprehend the part of my own being Heraclitus who was of Opinion that every place was full of Souls and Daemons did nevertheless maintain that no one could advance so far towards the knowledge of his Soul as ever to arrive at it so profound was the Essence of it Neither is there less controversie and debate about seating of it Hippocrates and Hierophilus place it in the Ventricle of the Brain Democritus and Aristotle throughout the whole Body Vt bona saepe valetudo cùm dicitur esse Corporis non est tamen haec pars ulla valentis As when the Bodies Health they do it call When of a sound Man that 's no part at all Epicurus in the Stomach Hic exultat enim pavor ac metus haec loca circùm Laetitiae mulcent For this the Seat of Horror is and Fear And Joys in turn do likewise triumph here The Stoicks about and within the Heart Erasistratus adjoyning the Membrane of the Epicranion Empedocles in the Blood as also Moses which was the reason why he interdicted eating the Blood of Beasts because the Soul is their seated Galen thought that every part of the Body had its Soul Strato has plac'd its betwixt the Eye-brows Qu◠facie quidem sit animus aut ubi habitet ne quaerendum quidem est What Figure the Soul is of or what part it inhabits is not to be inquir'd into says Cicero I very willingly deliver this Author to you in his own words For should I go about to alter Eloquence it self Besides it were but an easie prize to steal the Matter of his Inventions They are neither very frequent nor of any great weight and sufficiently known But the reason why Chrysippus argues it to be about the Heart as all the rest of that Sect do is not to be omitted It is says he because when we would affirm any thing we lay our hand upon our Breasts And when we will pronounce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies I we let the lower Mandable fall towards the Stomach This place ought not to be over-slipt without a Remark upon the Vanity of so great a Man For besides that these Considerations are infinitely light in themselves the last is only a a proof to the Greeks that they have their Souls lodg'd in that part No Human Judgment is so spritely and vigilant that it does
a wonder to my self accidentally to find them conformable to so many Philosophical Discourses and Examples I never knew what Regiment my Life was of till after it was near worn out and spent A new Figure An unpremeditate and accidental Philosopher But to return to the Soul in that Plato has plac'd the Reason in the Brain the Anger in the Heart and the Concupiscence in the Liver 't is likely that it was rather an Interpretation of the Movements of the Soul than that he intended a Division and Separation of it as of a Body into several Members And the most likely of their Opinions is that 't is always a Soul that by its Faculty Reasons remembers comprehends judges desires and exercises all its other Operations by divers Instruments of the Body as the Pilot guides his Ship according to his Experience one while straining or slacking the Cordage one while hoisting the Mainyard or removing the Rudder by one and the same strength carrying on so many several effects And that it is lodg'd in the Brain which appears in that the Wounds and Accidents that touch that part do immediately offend the Faculties of the Soul And 't is not incongruous that it should thence diffuse it self into the other parts of the Body medium non diserit unquam Caeli Phoebus iter radiis tamen omnia lustrat Phaebus ne're deviates from the Zodiack's way Yet all things does illustrate with his Ray. As the Sun sheds from Heaven's Light and Influence and fills the World with them Caetera pars animae per totum dissita corpus Paret ad numen mentis noménque movetur The other part o' th' Soul diffus'd all o're The Body does obey the Reasons lore Some have said that there was a General Soul as it were a great Body from whence all the particular Souls were extracted and thither again return always restoring it self to that Universal Matter Deum namque ire per omnes Terrásque tractusque maris caelumque profundum Hinc pecudes armenta viros genus omne ferarum Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas Scilicet huc reddi deinde ac resoluta referri Omnia Nec morti esse locum For they suppose That God through Earth the Sea and Heavens goes Hence Men Beasts Reptiles Insects Fishes Fouls Take all their issue to the Light their Souls And there again restore them when they dye They being not subject to Mortality Others that they only rejoyn'd and re-united themselves to it others that they were produc'd from the Divine Substance Others by the Angels of Fire and Air Others that they were from all Antiquity and some that they were created at the very Article of time the Bodies wanted them Others make them to descend from the Orb of the Moon and to return thither The generality of the Ancients that they were begot from Father to Son after a like manner and produc'd with all other Natural things raising their Argument from the likeness of Children to their Fathers Instillata patris virtus tibi Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Thou hast thy Fathers Vertues with his Blood For the Brave still spring from the Brave and Good And that we see descend from Fathers to their Children not only Bodily Marks but moreover a Resemblance of Humours Complexions and Inclinations of the Soul Denique cur acrum violentia triste leonum Seminium sequitur dolus vulpibus fuga cervis A patribus datur patrius pavor incitat artus Si non certa suo quia semine seminioque Vis animi pariter crescit cum corpore toto For why should Rage from the fierce Lyon's Seed Or from the subtle Foxes Craft proceed Or why the tim'rous and flying Hart His fear and trembling to his Race impart But that a certain Force of Mind does grow And still increases as the Bodies do That thereupon the Divine Justice is grounded punishing in the Children the Faults of their Fathers Forasmuch as the Contagion of Paternal Vices is in some sort imprinted in the Soul of Children and that the ill government of their Will extends to them Moreover that if Souls had any other Derivation than a Natural Consequence and that they had been some other thing out of the Body they would retain some Memory of their first Being the Natural Faculties that are proper to them of discoursing reasoning and remembring consider'd Si in corpus nascentibus insinuatur Cur superantes actam aetatem meminisse nequimus Nec vestigia gestarum rerum ulla tenemus For at our Birth if it infused be Why do we then retain no Memory Of our foregoing Life and why no more Remember any thing we did before For to make the condition of our Souls such as we would have it to be we must suppose them all knowing even in their Natural Simplicity and Purity By these means they had been such being free from the Prison of the Body as well before they entred into it as we hope they shall be after they are gone out of it And from this knowledge it should follow that they should remember being get in the Body as Plato said That what we learn is no other than a remembrance of what we knew before a thing which every one by experience may maintain to be false Forasmuch in the first place as that we do not justly remember any thing but what we have been taught And that if the Memory did purely perform its Office it would at least suggest to us something more than what we have learned Secondly That which she knew being in her Purity was a true Knowledge knowing things as they are by her Divine Intelligence Whereas here we make her receive Falshood and Vice when we instruct her wherein she cannot imploy her Reminiscence that Image and Conception having never been planted in her â—o say that the Corporal Prison does in such sort suffocate her Natural Faculties that they are there utterly extinct is first contrary to this other Belief of acknowledging her Power to be so great and and the Operations of it that Men sensibly perceive in this Life so admirable as to have thereby concluded this Divinity and past Eternity and the Immortality to come Nam si tantopere est animi mutata potestas Omnis ut actarum exciderit retinentia rerum Non ut opinor ea ab letho jam longior errat For if the Mind be chang'd to that degree As of past things to lose all Memory So great a Change as that I must confess Appears to me than Death but little less Furthermore 't is here with us and not elsewhere that the Forces and Effects of the Soul ought to be consider'd All the rest of her Perfections are vain and useless to her 't is by her present condition that all her Immortality is to be rewarded and paid and of the Life of Man only that she is to render an account It had been Injustice
Vsuram nobis largiuntur tanquam cornicibus diu mansuros aiunt animos semper negant They give us a long Life as also they do to Crows they say our Soul shall continue long but that it shall continue always they deny Who give to Souls a Life after this but finite The most universal and receiv'd Fancy and that continues down to our Times is that of which they make Pythagoras the Author not that he was the original Inventor but because it receiv'd a great deal of Weight and Repute by the Authority of his Approbation is that Souls at their departure out of us did nothing but shift from one Body to another from a Lyon to a Horse from a Horse to a King continually travailing at this rate from Habitation to Habitation And he himself said that he remembred he had been Aethalides since that Euphorbus and afterwards Hermotimus and finally from Pyrrhus was past into Pythagoras having a Memory of himself of two hundred and six Years And some have added that these very Souls sometimes remount to Heaven and come down again O pater à nne aliquas ad Coelum hinc ire putandum est Sublimes animas iterúmque ad tarda reverti Corpora quae lucis miseris tam dira cupido Is it to be believ'd that some sublime And high-flown Souls should hence from Heaven climb And thence return t'immure themselves in slow And heavy Prisons of dull Flesh below Origen makes them eternally to go and come from a better to a worse Estate The Opinion that Varro makes mention of is that after four hundred and forty Years Revolution they should be re-united to their first Bodies Chrysippus held that that would happen after a certain space of time unknown and unlimited Plato who professes to have embraced this Belief from Pindar and the ancient Poets thinks they are to undergo infinite Vicissitudes of Mutation for which the Soul is prepar'd having neither Punishment nor reward in the other World but what is Temporal as its Life here is but Temporal concludes that it has a singular Knowledg of the Affairs of Heaven of Hell of the World through all which it has past repast and made stay in several Voyages fit matters for her Memory Observe her Progress elsewhere the Soul that has liv'd well is reunited to the Star to which it is assign'd That removes into a Woman and if it do not there reform is again removed into a Beast of Condition suitable to its vicious Manners and shall see no end of its punishments till it be returned to its natural Constitution and that it has by the force of Reason purg'd it self from those gross stupid and elementary Qualities it was polluted with But I will not omit the Objection the Epicureans make against this Transmigration from one Body to another and 't is a pleasant one They ask what Expedient would be found out if the number of the dying should chance to be greater than that of those who are coming into the World For the Souls turned out of their old Habitation would scuffle and croud which should first get Possession of this new Lodging And they further demand how they should pass away their time whilst waiting till a new Quarter were made ready for them Or on the contrary if more Animals should be born than dye the Body they say would be but in an ill Condition whilst in expectation of a Soul to be infused into it and it would fall out that some Bodies would dye before they had been alive Denique connubia adveneris partúsque ferarum Esse animas praesto deridiculum esse videtur Et spectare immortales mortalia membra Innumero numero certaréque praeproperanter Inter se quae prima potissimáque insinuetur It seems ridiculous that Souls should be Always attending on Beast's Venery And being immortal mortal Bodies shou'd Covet to have and in vast numbers crowd Strive and contend with heat and eagerness Which should the first and most desir'd possess Others have arrested the Soul in the Body of the Deceased with it to animate Serpents Worms and other Beasts which are said to be bred out of the Corruption of our Members and even out of our Ashes Others divide them into two parts the one mortal and the other immortal Others make it Corporeal and nevertheless Immortal Some make it Immortal without Science or Knowledg And there are even of us our selves who have believed that Devils were made of the Souls of the Damned as Plutarch thinks that Gods we made of those that were saved For there are few things which that Author is so positive in as he is in this maintaining elsewhere a doubtful and ambiguous way of Expression We are to hold says he and steadfastly to believe that the Souls of Virtuous Men both according to Nature and the divine Justice become Saints and from Saints Demy-Gods and from Demy-Gods after they are perfectly as in Sacrifices of Purgation cleansed and purified being delivered from all Passibility and all Mortality they become not by any civil Decree but in real Truth and according to all probability of Reason entire and perfect Gods in receiving a most happy and glorious End But who desires to see him him I say who is the most sober and moderate of the whole Gang of Philosophers lay about him with greater Boldness and relate his Miracles upon this Subject I refer him to his Treatise of the Moon and his Daemon of Socrates where he may as evidently as in any other place whatever satisfy himself and affirm that the Mysteries of Philosophy have many strange things in common with those of Poesy human Understanding losing it self in attempting to sound and search all things to the Bottom Even as we tired and worn out with a long course of Life return to Infancy and Dotage See here the fine and certain Instructions which we extract from human Knowledg concerning the Soul Neither is there less Temerity in what they teach us touching our corporal Parts Let us choose out one or two Examples for otherwise we should lose our selves in this vast and troubled Ocean of Medicinal Errors Let us first know whether at least they agree about the Matter whereof Men produce one another For as to their first Production it is no wonder if in a thing so high and so long since past human Understanding finds it self puzzled and perplexed Archelaus the Physitian whose Disciple and Favourite Socrates was according to Aristoxenus said that both Men and Beasts were made of a lacteous Slime exprest by the Heat of the Earth Pythagoras says that our Seed is the Foam or Cream of our better Blood Plato that it is the Distillation of the Marrow of the Back-bone and raises his Argument from this that that part is first sensible of being weary of the Work Alcmeon that it is part of the Substance of the Brain and that it is so says he it causes weakness of the Eyes in those
who are over-immoderately addicted to that Exercise Democritus that it is a Substance extracted from the whole Mass of the Body Epicurus extracted from Soul and Body Aristotle an Excrement drawn from the Aliment of the last Blood which is diffused over all our Members Others that it is a Blood concocted and digested by the heat of the Genitories which they judg by reason that in excessive Endeavours a Man voids pure florid Blood Wherein there seems to be the most likelyhood could a Man extract any apparance from so infinite a Confusion Now to bring this Seed to do its Work how many contrary Opinions do they set on Foot Aristotle and Democritus are of Opinion that Women have no Sperm and that 't is nothing but a Sweat that they distil in the heat of Pleasure and Motion that contributes nothing at all to Generation Galen on the contrary and his Followers believe that without the Concurrence of Seeds there can be no Generation Here are the Physitians the Philosophers the Lawyers and Divines by the Ears with our Wives about the Dispute upon what Terms Women conceive their Fruit. And I for my part by the Example of myself stickle with those that maintain a Woman going eleven Months with Child The World is built upon this Experience there is not so pitiful a little Female that cannot give her Judgment in all these Controversies and yet we cannot agree Here is enough to evidence that Man is no better instructed in the Knowledg of himself in his corporal than in his spiritual Part. We have proposed himself to himself and his Reason to his Reason to see what she could say and I think I have sufficiently demonstrated how little she understands her self in her self And who understands not himself in himself in what can he possibly understand Quasi verò mensuram ullius rei possit agere qui sui nesciat As if he could understand the Measure of any other thing that knows not his own In earnest Protagoras told us a pretty Flam in making Man the measure of all things that never knew so much as his own If it be not he his Dignity will not permit that any other Creature should have this Advantage Now he being so contrary in himself and one Judgment so incessantly subverting another this favorable Proposition was but a Mockery which induc'd us necessarily to conclude the Nullity of the Compass and the Compasser when Thales reputes the knowledg of Man very difficult for Man to Comprehend he at the same time gives him to understand that all other Knowlege is impossible You for whom I have taken the Pains contrary to my Custom to write so long a Discourse will not refuse to maintain your Sebonde by the ordinary Forms of Arguing wherewith you are every day instructed and in this will exercise both your Wit and Learning For this fâ—ncing trick is never to be made use of but as an extream Remedy 'T is a desperate Thrust wherein you are to quit your own Arms to make your Adversary abandon his And a secret Slight which must be very rarely and then very reservedly put in Practise 'T is great Temerity to lose your self that you may destroy another you must not die to be revenged as Gobrias did For being hotly grappled in Combat with a Lord of Persia Darius coming in with his Sword in his Hand and fearing to strike least he should kill Gobrias he called out to him boldly to fall on tho' he should run them both thorow at once I have known the Arms and Conditions of single Combat to the utmost and wherein he that offered them put himself and his Adversary upon Terms of inevitable Death to them both censured for unjust The Portuguese in the Indian Sea took certain Turks Prisoners who impatient of their Captivity resolv'd and it succeded by striking the Nayles of the Ship against one another and making a Spark to fall into the Barrels of Powder that were set in the place where they were guarded to blow and reduce themselves their Masters and the Vessel to Ashes We have touched the out-Pale and utmost Limits of Sciences wherein the Extremity is Vicious as in Virtue Keep your selves in the common Road it is not good to be so subtle and cunning Remember the Thuscan Proverb Chi troppo s'assottiglia si scavezza Who makes himself too Wise becomes a Fool. I advise you that in all your Opinions and Discourses as well as in your Manners and all other things you keep your selves moderate and temperate and to avoid all Novelty I am an Enemy to all extravagant Ways You who by the Authority of your Grandeur and yet more by the Advantages which those Qualities give you that are most your own may with the twinck of an Eye command whom you please ought to give this Caution to some one who made Profession of Letters who might after a better manner have proved and illustrated these things to you But here is as much as you will stand in need of Epicurus said of the Laws that the worst were necessary for us and that without them Men would devour one another And Plato affirms that without Laws we should live like Beasts Our Spirit is a wandring dangerous and temerarious Utile it is hard to couple any Order or Measure to it In those of our own time who are endued with any rare Excellence above others or any extraordinary Vivacity of Understanding we see them almost all lash out into Licence of Opinions and Manners and 't is almost a Miracle to find one Temperate and Sociable 'T is all the Reason in the World to limit human Wit within the strictest Limits imaginable In Study as in all the rest we ought to have its Steps and Advances numbred and fix'd and that the Limits of its Inquisition be bounded by Act. It is curb'd and fetter'd by Religions Laws and Customs by Sciences Precepts mortal and Immortal Penalties and yet we see that it escapes from all these Bounds by its Volubility and Dissolution 'T is a vain Body which has nothing to lay hold on or to seize a various and difform Body incapable of being either bound or held In earnest there are few Souls so regular firm and well descended that are to be trusted with their own Conduct and that can with Moderation and without Temerity sayl in the Liberty of their own Judgments beyond the common and received Opinions 'T is more expedient to put them under Pupillage Wit is a dangerous Weapon even to the Possessor if he knows not discreetly how to use it and there is not a Beast to whom a Head-board is more justly to be given to keep his Looks down and before his Feet and to hinder him from wandring here and there out of the Tracks which Custom and the Laws have laid before him And therefore it will much better become you to keep your selves in the beaten Path let it be what it will than to
apparence of likelihood which makes them rather take the Left hand than the Right augments it Multiply this Ounce of Verisimilitude that turns the Scales to a hundred to a thousand Ounces it will happen in the end that the Ballance will it self end the Controversie and determine one Choice and intire Truth But why do they suffer themselves to incline to and be sway'd by Verisimilitude if they know not the Truth How should they know the Similitude of that whereof they do not know the Essence Either we can absolutely judge or absolutely we cannot If our intellectual and sensible Faculties are without Foot or Foundation if they only hull and drive 't is to no purpose that we suffer our Judgments to be carried away with any thing of their Operation what apparence soever they may seem to present us And the surest and most happy Seat of our Understanding would be that where it kept it self temperate upright and inflexible without tottering or without agitation Inter visa vera aut falsa ad animi assensum nihil interest Amongst things that seem whether true or false it signifies nothing to the assent of the mind That things do not lodge in us in their Form and Essence and do not there make their entry by their own Force and Authority we sufficiently see Because if it were so we should receive them after the same manner Wine would have the same relish with the sick as with the healthful He who has his Finger chapt or benum'd would find the same hardness in Wood or Iron that he handles that another does Strange Subjects then surrender themselves to our Mercy and are seated in us as we please Now if on our part we did receive any thing without alteration if Human Grasp were capable and strong enough to seize on Truth by our own means being common to all Men this Truth would be convey'd from hand to hand from one to another and at least there would be some one thing to be found in the World amongst so many as there are that would be believ'd by Men with an universal Consent But this that there is no one Proposition that is not debated and controverted amongst us or that may not be makes it very manifest that our Natural Judgment does not very clearly discern what it imbraces For my Judgment cannot make my Companions approve of what it approves Which is a sign that I seiz'd it by some other means than by a Natural Power that is in me and in all other Men. Let us lay aside this infinite Confusion of Opinions which we see even amongst the Philosophers themselves and this perpetual and universal Dispute about the knowledge of things For this is truly presuppos'd that Men I mean the most knowing the best born and of the best parts are not agreed about any one thing Not that Heaven is over our heads For they that doubt of every thing do also doubt of that and they who deny that we are able to comprehend any thing say that we have not comprehended that the Heaven is over our heads and these two Opinions are without comparison the stronger in number Besides this infinite Diversity and Division through the Trouble that our Judgment gives our selves and the Incertainty that every one is sensible of in himself 't is easie to perceive that its Seat is very unstable and unsecure How variously do we judge of things How often do we alter our Opinions What I hold and believe to day I hold and believe with my whole Belief All my Instruments and Engines seize and take hold of this Opinion and become responsible to me for it at least as much as in them lyes I could not imbrace nor conserve any Truth with greater confidence and assurance than I do this I am wholly and intirely possess'd with it But has it not befallen me not only once but a thousand times every day to have imbrac'd some other thing with all the same Instruments and in the same condition which I have since judg'd to be false A Man must at least become wise at his own expence If I have often found my self betrayed under this colour if my Touch prove ordinarily false and my Ballance unequal and unjust what assurance can I now have more than at other times Is it not stupidity and madness to suffer my self to be so often deceiv'd by my Guide Nevertheless let Fortune remove and shift us five hundred times from place ro place let her do nothing but incessantly empty and fill into our Belief as into a Vessel other and other Opinions yet still the present and the last is the certain and infallible For this we must abandon Goods Honour Life Health and all posterior res illa reperta Perdit immutat sensus ad pristina quaeque The last thing we find out is always best And makes us to disrelish all the rest Whatever is preach'd to us and whatever we learn we should still remember that it is Man that gives and Man that receives 't is a mortal Hand that presents it to us 't is a mortal Hand that accepts it The things that come to us from Heaven have the sole Right and Authority of Persuasion the sole mark of Truth Which also we do not see with our own Eyes nor receive by our own means That Great and Sacred Image could not abide in so wretched a Habitation if God for this end did not prepare it if God did not by his particular and supernatural Grace and Favour fortifie and reform it At least our frail and defective condition ought to make us comport our selves with more reservedness and moderation in our Innovations and Change We ought to remember that whatever we receive into the Understanding we often receive things that are false and that it is by the same Instruments that so often gives themselves the Lie and are so oft deceiv'd Now it is no wonder they should so often contradict themselves being so easie to be turn'd and sway'd by very light Occurrences It is certain that our Apprehensions our Judgment and the Faculties of the Soul in general suffer according to the Movements and Alterations of the Body which Alterations are continual Are not our Wits more spritely our Memories more prompt and quick and our Meditations more lively in Health than in Sickness Do not Joy and Gayety make us receive Subjects that present themselves to our Souls quite otherwise that Care and Melancholy Do you believe that Catellus his Verses or those of Sappho please an old doting Miser as they do a vigorous and amorous Young-man Cleomenes the Son of Anaxandridas being sick his Friends reproach'd him that he had Humours and Whimsies that were new and unaccustom'd I believe it said he neither am I the same Man now as when I am in health Being now another thing my Opinions and Fancies are also other than they were before In our Courts of Justice this word which is
Respects That the Heavens the Stars and the Sun have all of them sometimes Motions retrograde to what we see changing East into West The Egyptian Priests told Herodotus that from the time of their first King which was eleven thousand and od Years and they shew'd him the Effigies of all their Kings in Statues taken by the Life the Sun had four times altered his Course That the Sea and the Earth did alternately change into one another Aristotle and Cicero both say that the Beginning of the VVorld is undetermin'd And some amongst us are of Opinion that it has been from all Eternity is mortal and renued again by several Vicissitudes calling Salomon and Isaiah to witness To evade those Oppositions that God has once been a Creator without a Creature that he has had nothing to do that he has contradicted that Vacancy by putting his Hand to this VVork and that consequently he is subject to Change In the most famous of the Greek Schools the World is taken for a God made by another God greater than he and is composed of a Body and a Soul fix'd in his Center and dilating himself by musical-Numbers to his Circumference Divine infinitely Happy and infinitely Great infinitely Wise and Eternal In him are other Gods the Sea the Earth the Stars who entertain one another with a harmonious and perpetual Agitation and divine Dance Sometimes meeting sometimes retiring from one another concealing and discovering themselves changing their Order one while before and another behind Heraclytus was positive that the World was composed of Fire and by the order of Destiny was one Day to be enflam'd and consum'd in Fire and then to be again renew'd And Apuleius says of Men Sigillatim mortales cunctim perpetui That they are Mortal in particular and Immortal in general Alexander writ to his Mother the Narration of an Egyptian Priest drawn from their Monuments testifying the Antiquity of that Nation to be infinite and comprizing the Birth and Progress of other Countries Cicero and Diodorus say that in their time the Chaldees kept a Register of four hundred thousand and odd Years Aristotle Pliny and others that Zoroaster flourished six thousand Years before Plato's time Plato says that they of the City of Sais have Records in Writing of eight thousand Years And that the City of Athens was built a thousand Years before the said City of Sais Epicurus that at the same time things are here in the Posture we see they are alike and in the same manner in several other Worlds VVhich he would have delivered with greater Assurance had he seen the Similitude and Concordance of the new discovered VVorld of the West-Indies with ours present and past in so many strange Examples In earnest considering what is arriv'd at our Knowledg from the Course of this terrestrial Policy I have often wondred to see in so vast a Distance of Places and Times such a Concurrence of so great a number of popular and wild Opinions and of savage Manners and Beliefs which by no means seem to proceed from our natural Meditation Human VVit is a great VVorker of Miracles But this Relation has moreover I know not what of Extraordinary in it 't is found to be in Names also and a thousand other things For they found Nations there that for ought we know never heard of us where Circumcision was in use VVhere there were States and strict Civil Goverments maintain'd by VVomen only without Men VVhere Feasts and Lent were represented to which was added the Abstinence from VVomen VVhere our Crosses were several ways in Repute VVhere they were made use of to Honor and adorn their Sepultures where they were erected and namely that of St. Andrew to protect themselves from Nocturnal Visions and to lay upon the Cradles of the Infants against Inchantments Elsewhere there was found one of VVood of very great Stature which was ador'd for the God of Rain and that a great way into the firm Land where there was seen an express Image of our Shriving-Priests with the use of Miters the Coelibacy of Priests the Art of Divination by the Entrails of Sacrific'd Beasts Abstinence from all sorts of Flesh and Fish in their Diet the manner of Priests Officiating in a particular and not a vulgar Language And this Fancy that the first God was dishonoured by a second his younger Brother That they were Created with all sorts of Necessaries and Conveniences which have since been taken from them for their Sins their Territory chang'd and their natural Condition made worse That they were of old overwhelm'd by the Inundation of VVater from Heaven that but few Families escaped who retired into Caves of high Mountains the Mouths of which they so stopp'd that the Waters could not get in having shut up together with themselves several sorts of Animals that when they perceived the Rain to cease they sent out Dogs which returning clean and wet they judg'd that the Water was not much abated Afterward sending out others and seeing them return durty they issued out to re-people the World which they found only full of Serpents In one place they met with the persuasion of a day of Judgment insomuch that they were marvelously displeas'd at the Spaniards for discomposing the Bones of the Dead in rifling the Sepultures for Riches saying that those Bones so disorder'd could not easily rejoyn The Traffick by Exchange and no other way Fairs and Markets for that end Dwarfs and deform'd people for the Ornament of the Tables of Princes The use of Falconry according to the Natures of their Hawks tyrannical Subsidies Curiosity in Gardens Dances tumbling Tricks Musick of Instruments Armories Tennis Courts Dice and Lotteries wherein they are sometimes so eager and hot as to stake and play themselves and their liberty Physick no otherwise than by Charms And the way of writing in Cipher The belief of only one first Man the Father of all Nations The Adoration of one God who formerly liv'd a Man in perfect Virginity Fasting and Penitence preaching the Law of Nature and the Ceremonies of Religion and that vanished from the World without a Natural Death The Opinion of Gyants the Custom of making themselves drunk with their Beverages and drinking to the utmost The religious Ornaments painted with Bones and dead Mens Sculls Surplices Holy Water sprinkled Wives and Servants who present themselves with Emulation to be burnt and interr'd with the dead Husband or Master A Law by which the Eldest succeeds to all the Estate no other Provision being made for the Younger but Obedience The Custom that upon Promotion to a certain Office of great Authority the Promoted is to take upon him a new Name and to leave that he had before Another to strew Lime upon the Knee of the New-born Child with those Words From Dust thou camest and to Dust thou must return As also the Art of Augury These vain â—hadows of our
Religion which are observable in some of these Examples are Testimonies of its Dignity and Divinity Its is not only in some sort insinuated into all the Infidel Nations one this side of the World by a certain Imitation but into the fore-nam'd Barbarians also as by a common and supernatural Inspiration For we find there the Belief of Purgatory but of a new Form that which we give to the Fire they give to the Cold and imagine that the Souls are both purg'd and punish'd by the rigour of an excessive Coldness And this Example puts me in mind of another pleasant diversity For as there were in hat place some people who took a Pride to strip and unmuffle the Glances of their Instruments and clipt off the Prepuce after the Mahometan and Jewish manner there were others who made so great conscience of laying it bare that they carefully purs'd it up with little Strings to keep that end from peeping into the Air. And of this other diversity that whereas we to honour Kings and Festivals put on the best Cloths we have In some Religions to express their Disparity and Submission to their King his Subjects present themselves before him in their vilest Habits and entring his Palace throw some old tatter'd Garment over their better Apparel to the end that all the Lustre and Ornament may solely remain in him But to proceed if Nature inclose within the Bounds of her ordinary Progress the Beliefs Judgments and Opinions of Men as well as all other things If they have their Revolution their Season their Birth and Death like Cabage Plants If the Heavens agitate and rule them at their pleasure what Magisterial and Permanent Authority do we attribute to them If we experimentally see that the Form of our Being depends upon the Air upon the Climat and upon the Soile where we are born And not only the Colour the Stature the Complexion and the Countenances but moreover the very Faculties of the Soul it self Et plaga Caeli non solùm ad robur corporum sed etiam animorum facit The Climate is of great Efficacy not only to the strength of Bodies but to that of Souls also says Vegetius And that the Goddess who founded the City of Athens chose to scituate it in a temperature of Air fit to make Men prudent as the Egyptian Priests told Solon Athenis tenue Caelum Ex quo etiam cutiores putantur Attici Crassum Thebis Itaque pingues Thebani valentes The Air of Athens is subtle and thin From whence also the Athenians are reputed to be more acute And at Thebes more gross and thick wherefore the Thebans are look'd upon as more heavy-witted and more strong In such sort that as the Fruits and Animals differ the Men should also be more or less warlike just temperate and docile here given to Wine elsewhere to Theft or Uncleanness Here inclin'd to Superstition elsewhere to Miscreancy In one place to Liberty in another to Servitude capable of one Science or of one Art Dull or Ingenious Obedient or Mutinous Good or Ill according as the place where they are seated inclines them and assume a new Complexion if remov'd like Trees Which was the reason why Cyrus would not grant the Persians leave to quit their rough and craggy Country to remove to another more pleasant and plain Saying that fertile and tender Soiles made Men effeminate and soft If we see one while one Art and one Belief flourish and another while another thorough some Celestial Influence Such an Age to produce such Natures and to incline Mankind to such and such a Propension The Spirits of Men one while gay and another grum like our Feilds what becomes of all those fine Prerogatives we so sooth our selves withal Seeing that a wise Man may be mistaken a hundred Men a hundred Nations nay that even Human Nature it self as we believe is many Ages wide in one thing or another what assurance have we that she sometimes is not mistaken or not in this very Age of ours Methinks that amongst others Testimonies of our Imbecillity this ought not to be forgotten that Man cannot by his own Wish and Desire find out what is necessary for him that not in Fruition only but in Imagination and Wish we cannot agree about what we would have to satisfie and content us Let us leave it to our own Thought to cut out and make up at pleasure It cannot so much as covet what is proper for it and satisfie it self quid enim ratione timemus Aut cupimus Quid tam dextro pede concipis ut te Conatus non poeniteat votique peracti For what with Reason does Man wish or fear Or undertake upon a Ground so clear That afterward he may not well repent Both the Attempt and the desir'd Event And therefore it was that Socrates beg'd nothing of the Gods but what they knew to be best for him And the both private and publick Prayers of the Lacedemonians were only simply to obtain good and useful things referring the Choice and Election of them to the Discretion of the Supream Power Conjugium petimus partumque Vxoris at illis Notum qui pueri qualisque futura sit Vxor. We pray for Wives and Children they above Know only when we have them what they 'l prove And Christians pray to God that his Will may be done That they may not fall into the Inconvenience the Poet feigns of King Midas He pray'd to the Gods that all he touch'd might be turn'd into Gold His Prayer was heard his Wine was Gold his Bread was Gold and the Feathers of his Bed his Shirt and Clothes were turn'd into Gold so that he found himself ruin'd and overwhelm'd with the Fruition of his Desire and being inrich'd with an inollerable Wealth was fain to unpray his Prayers Attonitus novitate mali divesque miserque Effugere optat opes quae modo voverat odit Astonish'd at the strangeness of the ill To be so rich yet miserable still He wishes now he could his wealth evade And hates the thing for which before he pray'd To instance in my self Being young I desir'd of Fortune above all things the Order of St. Michel which was then the utmost distinction of Honour amongst the French Nobless and very rare She pleasantly gratified my longing Instead of raising me and lifting me up from my own place to attain to it she was much kinder to me for she brought it so low and made it so cheap that It stoopt down to my Shoulders and lower Cleobis and Biton Trophonius and Agamedes having requested the first of their Goddess the last of their God a Recompence worthy of their Piety had Death for a Reward so differing are the heavenly Opinions concerning what is fit for us from ours God might grant us Riches Honours Life and Health sometimes to our own hurt for every thing that is pleasing to us is not
judges and knows to be false is frequently seen I set aside the Sense of feeling that has its Functions nearer more lively and substantial that so often by the effect of the Pains it helps the Body to subverts and overthrows all those fine Stoical Resolutions and compells him to cry out of his Belly who has resolutely establish'd this Doctrine in his Soul that the Cholick and all other Pains and Diseases are indifferent things not having the Power to abate any thing of the Sovereign Felicity wherein the wise man is seated by his Vertue There is no Heart so effeminate that the rattle and sound of our Drums and Trumpets will not enflame with Courage nor so sullen that the Harmony of our Musick will not rouse and cheer nor so stubborn Soul that will not feel it self struck with some Reverence in considering the gloomy vastness of our Churches the variety of Ornaments and Order of our Ceremonies and to hear the solemn Musick of our Organs and the Grace and devout Harmony of our Voices Even those that come in with Contempt feel a certain shivering in their Hearts and something of dread that makes them begin to doubt their Opinions For my part I do not think my self strong enough to hear an Ode of Horace or Catullus Sung by a beautiful young Mouth without emotion And Zeno had reason to say That the Voice was the flower of Beauty One would once make me believe that a certain Person whom all we Frenchmen know had impos'd upon me in repeating some Verses that he had made that they were not the same upon the Paper that they were in the Air and that my Eyes would make a contrary Judgement to my Ears So great a Power has Pronuntiation to give fashion and value to Works that are left to the Efficacy and Modulation of the Voice And therefore Philoxenus was not so much too blame hearing one give an ill Accent to some Composition of his for spurning and breaking certain Earthen Vessels of his saying I break what is thine because thou corrupt'st what is mine To what end did those Men who have with a positive Resolution destroy'd themselves turn away their Faces that they might not see the blow that was by themselves appointed and that those who for their Health desire and command Incisions to be made and Cauteries to be applied to them cannot endure the sight of the Preparations Instruments and Operations of the Chyrurgeon being that the Sight is not any way to participate in the Pain Are not these proper Examples to verifie the authority the Senses have over the Imagination 'T is to much purpose that we know these Tresses were borrow'd from a Page or a Lacquey that this Vermilion came from Spain and this Cerus from the Ocean Sea our Sight will nevertheless compell us to confess that Subject more agreeable and more lovely against all Reason For in this there is nothing of it's own Anferimur cultu gemmis auroque teguntur Crimina pars minima est ipsa puella sui Saepe ubi sit quod ames inter tam multa requiras Decipit hac oculos Aegide dives amor Faults are with Jewels hid we 'r gull'd by Art The Girl is of her self the smallest part When 'mongst so many things we seek for her We love our Eyes often deceived are What a strange Power do the Poets attribute to the Senses that make Narcissus so desperately in Love with his own Shadow Cunctáque miratur quibus est mirabilis ipse Se cupit imprudens qui probat ipse probatur Dumque petit petitur pariterque accendit ardet Admireth all for which to be admir'd And inconsiderately himself desir'd The Praises which he gives his Beauty claim'd Who seeks is sought th' Enflamer is inflam'd And Pygmalion's Judgement so troubled by the Impression of the sight of his Ivory Statue that he loves and adores it as if it were a living Woman Oscula dat reddique putat sequiturque tenetque Et credit tactis digitos insidere membris Et metuit prestos veniat ne livor in artus He kisses and believes he 's kiss'd again Seizes and twixt his arms his Love doth strain And thinks the polish'd Ivory thus held Does to his fingers amorous pressure yield And has a tender Fear lest black and blue Should in the Parts with ardour press'd ensue Let a Philosopher be put into a Cage of small thin set Bars of Iron and hang him on the Top of the high Tower of Nostre Dame of Paris He will see by manifest Reason that he cannot possibly fall and yet he will find unless he have been used to the Plummers Trade that he cannot help but that the excessive height will fright and astonish him For we have enough to do to assure our selves in the Galleries of our Steeples if they are made with Rail and Baluster altho they are of Stone and some there are that cannot endure so much as to think of it Let there be a Beam thrown over betwixt these two Towers of breadth sufficient to walk upon there is no Philosophical Wisdom so firm that can give us the courage to walk over it as we should do upon the Ground I have often tried this upon our Mountains in these Parts and yet I am one who am not the most subject to be afraid that I was not able to endure to look into that infinite Depth without horror and trembling though I stood above my length from the edge of the Precipice and could not have fall'n down if I would Where I also observ'd that what height soever the Precipice were provided there were some Tree or some jutting out of a Rock a little to support and divide the Sight it a little eases our Fears and gives greater Assurance as if they were things by which in falling we might have some relief But that direct Precipices we are not able to look upon without being giddy ut despici sine vertigine simul oculorum animique non possit Which is a manifest imposture of the Sight And therefore it was that the fine Philosopher put out his own Eyes to free the Soul from being diverted by them and that he might Philosophise at greater liberty But by the same Rule he should have damm'd up his Ears that Theophrastus says are the most dangerous Instruments about us for receiving violent Impressions to alter and disturb us and finally should have depriv'd himself of all his other Senses that is to say of his Life and Being For they have all the power to command our Soul and Reason Fit etiam saepe specie quadam saepe vocum gravitate cantibus ut pellantur animi vehementius saepe etiam cura timore For it oft falls out that minds are more vehemently struck by some fight by the quality and sound of the Voice or by Singing and oft times also by Grief and Fear Physicians hold that there are certain
for necessary things Divinity treats amply and more pertinently of this Subject but I am not much vers'd in it Chrisippus and Diogenes were the first and the most constant Authors of the contempt of Glory and maintain'd that amongst all Pleasures there was none more dangerous nor more to be avoided than that which proceeds from the Approbation of others And in truth Experience makes us sensible of many very hurtful Treasons in it There is nothing that so poisons Princes as flattery nor any thing whereby wicked men more easily obtain Credit and Favour with them nor Pandarism so proper and usually made use of to corrupt the Chastity of Women than to wheedle and entertain them with their own Prayers The first Charm the Syrens made use of to allure Vlysses is of this Nature Deca vers nous deca o tres-louable Ulysse Et le plus grand honneur dont la Grece fleurise To us noble Vlysses this way this Thou greatest Ornament and pride of Greece These Philosophers said that all the Glory of the World was not worth an understanding mans holding out his Finger to obtain it Gloria quantalibet quid erit si Gloria tantum est What 's Glory in the high'st degree If it no more but Glory be I say for it alone for it often brings several commodities along with it for which it may justly be desir'd it acquires us good will and renders us less subject and expos'd to the injuries of others and the like It was also one of the principal Doctrines of Epicurus for this Precept of his Sect Conceal thy Life that forbids men to incumber themselves with Offices and publick Negotiations does also necessarily presuppose a contempt of Glory which is the worlds approbation of those actions we produce in publick He that bids us conceal our selves and to have no other Concern but for our selves and that will not have us known to others would much less have us honour'd and glorifi'd He advises Idomeneus also not in any sort to regulate his Actions by the common reputation or opinion if not to avoid the other accidental inconveniences that the contempt of men might bring upon him Those Discourses are in my opinion very true and rational but we are I know not how double in our selves which is the cause that what we believe we do not believe and cannot disengage our selves from what we condem Let us see the last and dying words of Epicurus they are great and worthy of such a Philosopher and yet they carry some marks of the recommendation of his name and of that humour he had decried by his Precepts Here is a Letter that he dictated a little before his last gasp Epicurus to Hermachus health WHilst I was passing over the happy and last day of my Life I writ this but at the same time afflicted with such a pain in my Bladder and Bowels that nothing can be greater But it was recompenc'd with the Pleasure the remembrance of my Inventions and Doctrines suggested to my Soul Now as the affection thou hast ever from thy Infancy borne towards me and Philosophy does require take upon thee the Protection of Metrodorus his Children This is the Letter And that which makes me interpret that the Pleasure he says he had in his Soul concerning his Inventions has some reference to the Reputation he hop'd for after his Death is the manner of his Will In which he gives order that Aminomachus and Timocrates his Heirs should every January defray the Expence for the Celebration of his Nativity that Hermachus should appoint and also the expence that should be made the twentieth of every Moon in entertaining of the Philosophers his Friends who should assemble in Honour of the Memory of him and Metrodorus Carneades was Head of the contrary Opinion and maintain'd that Glory was to be desir'd for it self even as we embrace our Posthumes for themselves having no Knowledge nor Enjoyment of them This Opinion was more universally follow'd as those commonly are that are most suitable to our Inclinations Aristotle gives it the first place amongst eternal Goods and avoids as too extream Vices the immoderate either seeking or evading it I believe that if we had the Books Cicero has writ upon this Subject we should there find fine Stories for he was so possess'd with this Passion that if he had dar'd I think he could willingly have fallen into the excess that others did that Virtue it self was not to be coveted but upon the account of the Honour that alwayes attends it Paulum sepultae distat inertiae Celata virtus Virtue if concealed doth Little differ from dead Sloth Which is an Opinion so false that I am vext it could ever enter into the Understanding of a man that was honour'd with the name of a Philosopher If this was true Men should not be Virtuous but in publick and he should be no further concern'd to keep the operation of the Soul which is the true seat of Vertue regular and in order than as they are to arrive at the knowledge of others Is there no more in it then but only slily and with Circumspection to do ill If thou knowest says Carneades of a Serpent lurking in a place where without suspicion a Person is going to sit down by whose Death thou expect'st an Advantage thou dost ill if thou dost not give him caution of his Danger and so much the more because the Action is to be known by none but thy self If we do not take up of our selves a rule of well doing if Impunity passes with us for Justice to how many sorts of Wickedness shall we every day abandon our selves I do not find what Sp. Peduceus did in faithfully restoring the Treasure that C. Plotius had committed to his sole Secrecy and Trust a thing that I have often done my self so commendable as I should think it an execrable baseness had we done otherwise And think it of good use in our dayes to introduce the Example of P. Sextilius Ruffus whom Cicero accuses to have enter'd upon an Inheritance contrary to his Conscience not only not against Law but even by the Determination of the Laws themselves And M. Crassus and Q. Hortensius who by reason of their Authority and Power having been call'd in by a Stranger to share in the Succession of a forg'd Will that so he might secure his own part satisfied themselves with having no hand in the Forgery and refus'd not to make their Advantage and to come in for a share secure enough if they could shrowd themselves from Accusations Witnesses and the Cognizance of the Laws Meminerint Deum se habere testem id est ut ego arbitror mentem suam Let them consider they have God to witness that is as I interpret it their own Consciences Vertue is a very vain and frivolous thing if it derives its recommendation from Glory And 't is to no purpose that we endeavour to give it
a Station by it self and separate it from Fortune for what is more accidental than Reputation Profecto Fortuna in omni re dominatur ea res cunctas ex libidine magis quam ex vero celebrat obscuratque Fortune rules in all things and does advance and depress things more out of her own Will than Right and Justice So to order it that Actions may be known and seen is purely the work of Fortune 't is Chance that helps us to glory according to its own temerity I have often seen her go along with Merit and often very much exceed it He that first liken'd Glory to a shadow did better than he was aware of They are both of them things excellently vain Glory also like a shadow goes sometimes before the Body and sometimes in length infinitely exceeds it They that instruct Gentlemen only to employ their Valour for the obtaining of Honour Quasi non sit honestum quod nobilitatum non sit As though it were not a Vertue unless ennobled What do they intend by that but to instruct them never to hazard themselves if they are not seen and to observe well if there be Witnesses present who may carry News of their Valour whereas a thousand Occasions of well doing present themselves when we cannot be taken notice of How many brave Actions are buried in the crowd of a Battel Whoever shall take upon him to censure anothers Behaviour in such a Confusion is not very busie himself and the Testimony he shall give of his Companions Deportments will be Evidence against himself Vera sapiens Animi magnitudo honestum illud quod maxime naturam sequitur in factis positum non in Gloria judicat The true and wise magnanimity judges that the bravery which most follows Nature more consists in Act than Glory All the Glory that I pretend to derive from my Life is that I have liv'd it in quiet In quiet not according to Metrodorus Archesilans or Aristippus but according to my self for seeing Philosophy has not been able to find out any way to tranquility that is good in common let every one seek it in particular To what do Caesar and Alexander owe the infinite grandeur of their Renown but to Fortune How many Men has she extinguish'd in the beginning of their Progress of whom we have no Knowledge who brought as much Courage to the Work as they if their adverse hap had not cut them off in the first sally of their Arms Amongst so many and so great Dangers I do not remember I have any where read that Caesar was ever wounded a thousand have fallen in less Dangers than the least of those he went through A great many brave Actions must be expected to be perform'd without Witness and so lost before one turn to account A man is not alwayes on the top of a Breach or at the head of an Army in the sight of his General as upon a Scaffold A man is oft surpris'd betwixt the Hedg and the Ditch he must run the hazard of his Life against a Hen-roost he must bolt four rascally Musketeers out of a Barn he must prick out single from his Party and alone make some Attempts according as Necessity will have it And whoever will observe will I believe find it experimentally true that Occasions of the least Lustre are ever the most dangerous and that in the Wars of our own Times there have more brave Men been lost in Occasions of little moment and in the dispute about some little paltery Fort than in Places of greater Importance and where their Valours might have been more honourably employ'd Who thinks his Death unworthy of him if he do not fall in some signal Occasions instead of illustrating his Death does willfully obscure his Life suffering in the mean time many very just Occasions of hazarding himself to slip out of his Hands And every just one is illustrious enough every mans Conscience being a sufficient Trumpet to him Gloria nostra est Testimonium Conscientiae nostrae For our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience Who is only a good Man that Men may know it and that he may be the better esteem'd when 't is known who will not do well but upon Condition that his Virtue may be known to Men is one from whom much Service is not to be expected Credo ch' el resto di quel verno cose Facesse degne di tener ne conto Ma fur fin à quel tempo si nascose Che non è colpa mia s'hor ' nor le conto Porche Orlando a far ' opre virtuose Piu ch'à narra le poi sempre era pronto Ne mai fu alcun ' de li suoi fatti espresso Senon quando hebbei testimonii appresso The rest o' th Winter I presume was spent In Actions worthy of eternal Fame Which at the end was so in Darkness pent That if I name them not I 'm not to blame Orlando's noble Mind being more bent To do great Acts than boast him of the same So that no Deeds of his were ever known But those that luckily had lookers on A Man must go to the War upon the account of Duty and expect the Recompence that never fails brave and worthy Actions how private and conceal'd soever not so much as Virtuous Thoughts 'T is the Satisfaction that a well dispos'd Conscience receives in it self to do well A Man must be valiant for himself and upon the account of the Advantage it is to him to have his Courage seated in a firm and secure place against the Assaults of Fortune Virtus repulsae nescia sordidae Intaminatis fulget honoribus Nec sumit aut ponit secures Arbitrio popularis aurae Virtue that n'ere Repulse admits In taintless honours glorious sits Nor takes or leaveth Dignities Rais'd with the Noise of vulgar Cries It is not for outward shew that the Soul is to play its part but for our selves within where no Eyes can pierce but our own there she defends us from the fear of Death of Pains and Shame it self she there arms us against the loss of our Children Friends and Fortunes and when Opportunity presents it self she leads us on to the Hazards of War Non emolumento aliquo sed ipsius honestatis decore Not for any Profit or Advantage but for the Decency of Virtue A much greater Advantage and more worthy to be coveted and hop'd for than Honour and Glory which is no other than the favourable Judgment is given of us A dozen men must be call'd out of a whole Nation to judge of an Acre of Land and the Judgment of our Inclinations and Actions the hardest and most important thing that is we refer to the Voice and determinations of the Rabble the Mother of Ignorance Injustice and Inconstancy Is it reasonable that the Life of a wise Man should depend upon the Judgment of Fools An quidquam stultius
his Beauty that made Alexander carry his Head on one side and Alcibiades to lisp Julius Caesar scratch'd his Head with one Finger which is the fashion of a Man full of troublesome Thoughts and Cicero as I remember was wont to tweak his Nose a sign of a Man given to scoffing Such Motions as these may imperceptibly happen in us there are other artificial ones which I meddle not with as Salutations and Congees by which Men for the most part unjustly acquire the Reputation of being humble and courteous or perhaps humble out of Pride I am prodigal enough of my Hat especially in Summer and never am so saluted but I pay it again from Persons of what quality soever unless they be in my own dependance I should make it my Request to some Princes that I know that they would be more sparing of that Ceremony and bestow that Courtesie where it is more due for being so indiscreetly and indifferently confer'd on all they are thrown away to no purpose if they be without respect of Persons they lose their Effect Amongst irregular Countenances let us not forget that severe one of the Emperour Constantius that alwayes in publick held his Head upright and steady without bending or turning on either side not so much as to look upon those who saluted him on one side planting his Body in a stiff immoveable posture without suffering it to yield to the Motion of his Coach not daring so much as to spit blow his Nose or wipe his Face before People I know not whether the Gestures that were observ'd in me were of this first quality and whether I had really any secret propension to this Vice as it might well be and I cannot be responsible for the Motions of the Body but as to the Motions of the Soul I must here confess that I am sensible of something of that kind there This Glory consists of two parts the one in setting too great a value upon our selves and the other in setting too little a value upon others As to the one methinks these Considerations ought in the first place to be of some force I feel my self importun'd by an Errour of the Soul that displeases me both as it is unjust and as it is troublesome I attempt to correct it but I cannot root it out which is that I lessen the just value of things that I possess and overvalue others because they are foreign absent and none of mine This Humour spreads very far As the prerogative of the Authority which makes Husbands look upon their own Wives with a vicious disdain and many Fathers their Children so do I and betwixt two equal Merits should alwayes be sway'd against my own Not so much that the jealousie of my Preferment and the bettering of my Affairs does trouble my Judgment and hinders me from satisfying my self as that Dominion of it self begets a Contempt of what is our own and over which we have an absolute Command Foreign Governments Manners and Languages insinuate themselves into my esteem and I am very sensible that Latin allures me by the Favour of it's Dignity to value it above it's due as it does Children and the common sort of People The Oeconomy House and Horse of my Neighbour though no better than my own I prize above my own because they are not mine Besides that I am very ignorant in my own Affairs I am astonish'd at the assurance that every one has of himself whereas there is not almost any thing that I am sure I know or that I dare be responsible to my self that I can do I have not my means of doing any thing stated and ready and am only instructed after the effect as doubtful of my own force as I am of anothers whence it comes to pass that if I happen to do any thing commendable I attribute it more to my Fortune than Industry forasmuch as I design every thing by chance and in fear I have this also in general that of all the Opinions Antiquity has held of men in gross I most willingly embrace and most adhere to those that most contemn and undervalue us Methinks Philosophy has never so fair a Game to play as when it falls upon our Vanity and Presumption when it most lays open their Irresolution Weakness and Ignorance I look upon the too good Opinion that Man has of himself to be the nursing Mother of all the most false both publick and private Opinions Those People who ride astride upon the Epicicle of Mercury who see so far into the Heavens are worse to me than a Tooth-drawer that comes to draw my Teeth for in my Study the Subject of which is Man finding so great a variety of Judgements so great a Labyrinth of Difficulties one upon another so great diversity and incertainty even in the School of Wisdom it self you may judge seeing those People could not resolve upon the knowledge of themselves and their own condition which is continually before their Eyes and within them seeing they do not know how that moves which they themselves move nor how to give us a Description of the Springs they themselves govern and make use of how can I believe them about the ebbing and flowing of Nile The curiosity of knowing things has been given to Man for a Scourge says the holy Scripture But to return to what concerns my self I think it very hard that any other should have a meaner Opinion of himself nay that any other should have a meaner Opinion of me than I have of my self I look upon my self as one of the common sort saving in this that I have no better an Opinion of my self guilty of the meanest and most popular defects but not disown'd or excus'd and do not value my self upon any other account than because I know my own value If there be any Glory in the case 't is superficially infus'd into me by the treachery of my Complexion and has no Body that my Judgement can discern I am sprinkled but not tincted For in Truth as to the effects of the Mind there is no part of me be it what it will with which I am satisfied and the Approbation of others makes me not think the better of my self my Judgement is tender and tickle especially in things that concern my self I feel my self float and waver by reason of my weakness I have nothing of my own that satisfies my Judgment my sight is clear and regular enough but in opening it it is apt to dazle as I most manifestly find in Poesie I love it infinitely and am able to give a tolerable Judgment of other mens Works but in good earnest when I apply my self to it I play the Child and am not able to endure my self A Man may play the fool in every thing else but not in Poetry Mediocribus esse Poetis Non dii non homines non concessere columnae But neither Men nor Gods nor Pillars meant Poets should ever
brevis esse laboro Obscurus fio I strive Prolixity t'evade And by that means obscure am made Plato sayes that the long nor the short are not Proprieties that either take away or give lustre to Language Should I attempt to follow the other more moderate and united style I should never attain unto it and though the short round Periods of Salust best suit with my Humour yet I find Caesar much greater and harder to imitate and though my Inclination would rather prompt me to imitate Seneca's way of Writing yet do I nevertheless more esteem that of Plutarch Both in silence and speaking I simply follow my own natural way from whence peradventure it falls out that I am better at speaking than writing Motion and Action animate Words especially in those who lay about them briskly as I do and grow hot 〈◊〉 Comportment the Countenance the Voice the 〈◊〉 and the Tribunal will set off some things 〈◊〉 of themselves and so consider'd would appeâ—â— no better than prating Messalla complains 〈◊〉 Tacitus of the straightness of some Garmenâ— in his time and of the fashion of the Pewâ— where the Orators were to declaim that wenâ— a disadvantage to their Eloquence My French Tongue is corrupted both in the Pronuntiation and elsewhere by the Barbarism of my Country I never saw a Man who was a Native of any of the Provinces on this side of the Kingdom who had not a twang of his place of Birth and that was not offensive to Ears that were purely French And yet it is not that I am so perfect in my Perigourdin for I can no more speak it than high Dutch nor do I much care 'T is a Language as the rest about me on every side of Poitou Xaintonge Angoulesme Limosin and Auvergne are a scurvy drawling durty Language There is indeed above us towards the Mountains a sort of Gascon spoke that I am mightily taken with blunt brief significant and in truth a more Manly and Military Language than any other I am acquainted with as sinewy insinuating and pertinent as French is graceful neat and luxuriant As to the Latin which was given me for my Mother Tongue I have by discontinuance lost the use of speaking it and indeed of writing it too wherein I formerly had a particular Reputation by which you may see how inconsiderable I am on that side Beauty is a thing of great recommendation in the correspondency amongst men 't is the principal means of â—â—quiring the favour and good liking of one another and no man is so barbarous and morose that does not perceive himself in some sort struck with it's Attraction The Body has a great share 〈◊〉 our Being has an eminent place there and therefore it 's Structure and Symmetry are of very just consideration They who go about to disunite and separate our two principal parts from one another are to blame we must on the contrary reunite and rejoyn them We must command the Soul not to withdraw to entertain it self apart not to despise and abandon the Body neither can she do it but by some ridiculous counterfeit but to unite her self close to it to embrace cherish assist govern and advise it and to bring it back and set it into the true way when it wanders in summ to espouse and be a Husband to it forasmuch as their effects do not appear to be diverse and contrary but uniform and concurring Christians have a particular instruction concerning this Connexion for they know that the Divine Justice embraces this Society and juncture of Body and Soul even to the making the Body capable of eternal Rewards and that God has an Eye to every man's ways and will that he receive entire the chastisement or reward of his Demerits The Sect of the Peripateticks of all others the most Sociable does attribute to Wisdom this sole care equally to provide for the good of these two associate Parts and the other 〈◊〉 in not sufficiently applying themselves to 〈◊〉 Consideration of this mixture shew themselveâ— to be divided one for the Body and the otheâ— for the Soul with equal Error and to have 〈◊〉 their Subject which is Man and their Guide which they generally confess to be Nature Thâ— first distinction that ever was amongst men and the first Consideration that gave some Preheminence over others 't is likely was the Advantage of Beauty agros divisere atque dedere Pro facie cujusque viribus ingenioque Nam facies multum valuit viresque vigebant Then Cattel too was shar'd and steddy bounds Mark'd out to every man his proper Grounds Each had his proper share each what was fit According to his Beauty Strength or Wit For Beauty then and Strength had most Command Those had the greatest share in Beasts and Land Now I am of something lower than the middle stature a Defect that not only borders upon Deformity but carries withall a great deal of Inconvenience along with it especially those who are in command for the Authority which a graceful Presence and a majestick meen beget is wanting C. Marius did not willingly list any Souldiers that were not six foot high The Courtier has indeed reason to desire a moderate Stature in the Person he is to make rather than any other and to reject all strangeness that should make him be pointed at But in choosing he must have a care in this Mediocrity to have him rather below than above the common standard I would not do so in a Souldier Little men says Aristotle are pretty but not handsome and greatness of Soul is discover'd in a great Body as Beauty is in a conspicuous stature The Ethiopians and Indians says he in choosing their Kings and Magistrates had a special regard to the Beauty and Stature of their Persons They had Reason for it creates respect in those that follow them and is a Terror to the Enemy to see a Leader of a brave and goodly Stature march in the Head of a Battalion Ipse inter primos praestanti corpore Turnus Vertitur arma tenens toto vertice supra est The graceful Turnus tallest by the Head Shaking his Arms himself the Van up lead Our holy and heavenly King of whom every Circumstance is most carefully and with the greatest Religion and Reverence to be observ'd has not himself refus'd bodily Recommendation Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum He is fairer than the Children of Men. And Plato together with Temperance and Fortitude requires Beauty in the Conservators of his Republick It would vex you that a man should apply himself to you amongst your Servants to enquire where Monsieur is and that you should only have the remainder of the Complement of the Hat that is made to your Barber or your Secretary as it hapned to poor Philopaemen who arriving the first of all his Company at an Inn where he was expected the Hostess who knew him not and saw him an unsightly Fellow
lustrari debeat agna Now if a Friend does not deny his Trust But does th' old Purse restore with all it's rust 'T is a prodigious Faith that ought in Gold Amongst the Thuscan Annals be enroll'd And a crown'd Lamb should sacrificed be To such an exemplary Integrity And never was time or place wherein Princes might propose to themselves more certain Rewards for their Virtue and Justice The first that shall make it his business to get himself into favour and esteem by those ways I am much deceiv'd if he do not and by the best Title outstrip his Concurrents Force and Violence can do something but not always all We see Merchants Country Justices and Artizans go cheek by joul with the best Gentry in Valour and Military Knowledge They perform honourable Actions both in publick Engagements and private Quarrels they fight Duels and defend Towns in our present Wars A Prince stifles his Renown in this crowd Let him shine bright in Humanity Truth Loyalty Temperance and especially in Justice marks rare unknown and exil'd 't is by no other means but by the sole good-will of the People that he can do his business and no other Qualities can attract their good-will like those as being of greatest Utility to them Nil est tam populare quà m bonitas Nothing is so popular as goodness By this proportion I had been great and rare as I find my self now a Pigmee and popular by the proportion of some past Ages wherein if other better Qualities did not concur it was ordinary and common to see a Man moderate in his Revenges gentle in resenting Injuries in absence religious of his Word neither double nor too supple nor accomodating his Faith to the will of others or the turns of Times I would rather see all Affairs go to wrack and ruine than falsifie my Faith to secure them For as to this Virtue of Dissimulation which is now in so great request I mortally hate it and of all Vices find none that does evidence so much baseness and meanness of Spirit 'T is a cowardly and servile Humour to hide and disguise a man's self under a Vizor and not to dare to shew himself what he is By that our followers are train'd up to Treachery Being brought up to speak what is not true they make no Conscience of a Lye A generous Heart ought not to belye its own Thoughts but will make it self seen within all there is good or at least manly Aristotle reputes it the Office of Magnanimity openly and profess'dly to love and hate to judge and speak with all freedom and not to value the approbation or dislike of others in comparison of Truth Apollonius said it was for Slaves to lye and for Free-men to speak truth 'T is the chief and fundamental part of Vertue we must love it for it self He that speaks truth because he is oblig'd so to do and because he serves and that is not afraid to lye when it signifies nothing to any body is not sufficiently true My Soul naturally abominates Lying and hates the thought of it I have an inward bashfulness and a sharp remorse if sometimes a Lye escape me as sometimes it does being surpriz'd by Occasions that allow me no Premeditation A Man must not always tell all for that were folly but what a man says should be what he thinks otherwise 't is knavery I do not know what advantage men pretend to by eternally counterfeiting and dissembling if not never to be believ'd when they speak the truth This may once or twice pass upon men but to profess concealing their Thoughts and to brag as some of our Princes have done that they would burn their Shirts if they knew their true Intentions which was a saying of the Ancient Metellus of Macedon and that who knows not how to dissemble knows not how to Rule is to give warning to all who have any thing to do with them that all they say is nothing but Lying and Deceit Quo quis versutior callidior est hoc invisior suspectior detracta opinione probitatis By how much any one is more subtle and cunning by so much is he hated and suspected the Opinion of his Integrity being lost and gone It were a great simplicity in any one to lay any stress either on the Countenance or word of a man that has past on a Resolution to be always another thing without than he is within as Tiberius did and I cannot conceive what Interest such can have in the Conversation with men seeing they produce nothing that is current and true Whoever is disloyal to Truth is the same to Falshood also Those of our time who have considered in the establishment of the duty of a Prince the good of his Affairs only and have preferr'd that to the care of his Faith and Conscience might say something to a Prince whose Affairs Fortune had put into such a posture that he might for ever Establish them by only once breaking his Word but it will not go so they often buy in the same Market they make more than once Peace and enter into more than one Treaty in their lives Gain tempts them to the first breach of Faith and almost always presents it self as in all other ill Acts Sacrileges Murthers Rebellions Treasons as always undertaken for some kind of Advantage But this first Gain has infinite mischievous Consequences throws this Prince out of all Correspondence and Negotiation by this Example of Infidelity Soliman of the Ottoman Race a Race not very sollicitous of keeping their Words or Articles when in my Infancy he made his Army land at Otranto being inform'd that Mercurino de Gratinare and the Inhabitants of Castro were detain'd Prisoners after having surrendred the Place contrary to the Articles of their Capitulation sent order to have them set at Liberty saying That having other great Enterprizes in hand in those Parts the disloyalty though it carried a shew of present Utility would for the future bring on him a disrepute and diffidence of infinite prejudice Now for my part I had rather be troublesome and indiscreet than a Flatterer and a Dissembler I confess that there may be some mixture of Pride and Obstinacy in keeping my self so upright and open as I do without any Consideration of others and methinks I am a little too free where I ought least to be so and that I grow hot by the opposition of Respect and it may be also that I suffer my self to follow the Propension of my own Nature for want of Art using the same liberty of Speech and Countenance towards great Persons that I bring with me from my own House I am sensible how much it declines towards Incivility and Indiscretion but besides that I am so bred I have not a Wit supple enough to evade a sudden Question and to escape by some Evasion nor to feign a Truth nor Memory enough to retain it so feign'd nor truly assurance
they might have more room and there is scarce two or three little corners of the World that have not felt the effect of such Removals The Romans by this means erected their Colonies for perceiving their City to grow immeasurably populous they eas'd it of the most unnecessary People and sent them to inhabit and cultivate the Lands by them conquer'd sometimes also they purposely maintain'd Wars with some of their Enemies not only to keep their men in action for fear lest Idleness the Mother of Corruption should bring upon them some worse inconvenience Et patimur longae pacis mala saevior armis Luxuria incumbit We suffer th' ills of a long Peace by far Greater and more pernicious than War but also to serve for a Blood-letting to their Republick and a little to evaporate the too vehement heat of their Youth to prune and cleanse the Branches from the Stock too luxuriant in Wood and to this end it was that they formerly maintain'd so long a War with Carthage In the Treaty of Bretigny Edward the third King of England would not in the general Peace he then made with our King comprehend the Controversie about the Dutchy of Brittany that he might have a Place wherein to discharge himself of his Souldiers and that the vast number of English he had brought over to serve him in that Expedition might not return back into England And this also was one reason why our King Philip consented to send his Son John that Foreign Expedition that he might take along with him a great number of hot Young-men that were then in his Pay There are many in our Times who talk at this rate wishing that this hot Emotion that is now amongst us might discharge it self in some neighbouring War for fear lest all the peccant Humours that now reign in this politick Body of ours may not diffuse themselves farther keep the Fever still in the height and at last cause our total Ruin and in truth a Foreign is much more supportable than a Civil War but I do not believe that God will favour so unjust a design as to offend and quarrel others for our own advantage Nil mihi tam valde placeat Rhamnusia virgo Quod temere invitis suscipiatur heris In War that does invade another's right Whose end is plunder I take no delight And yet the weakness of our condition does often push us upon the necessity of making use of ill means to a good end Lycurgus the most vertuous and perfect Legislator that ever was invented this unjust practice of making the Helotes who were there Slaves drunk by force by so doing to teach his People Temperance to the end that the Spartiates seeing them so overwhelmed and buried in Wine might abhor the excess of this beastly Vice And yet they were more too blame who of old gave leave that Criminals to what sort of death soever condemn'd should be cut up alive by the Physicians that they might make a true discovery of our inward parts and build their Art upon greater certainty for if we must run into excesses 't is more excusable to do it for the health of the Soul than that of the Body as the Romans train'd up the People to Valour and the contempt of Dangers and Death by those furious Spectacles of Gladiators and Fencers who being to fight it out to the last cut mangled and killed one another in their Presence Quid vesani aliud sibi vult ars impia ludi Quid mortes juvenum quid sanguine pasta voluptas Of such inhumane sports what further use What Pleasure can slaughters of men produce and this custom continued till the Emperour Theodosius his time Arripe dilatam tua dux in tempora famam Quodque patris superest successor laudis habeto Nullus in Vrbe cadat cujus sit poena Voluptas Jam solis contenta feris infamis arena Nulla cruentatis homicidia ludat in armis Prince take the Honours destin'd for thy Reign Inherit of thy Father those remain Henceforth let none at Rome for sport be slain Let beast's Blood stain th' infamous Theater And no more Homicides be acted there It was in truth a wonderful Example and of great advantage for the training up the People to see every day before their Eyes a hundred two hundred nay a thousand couples of Men arm'd against one another cut one another to pieces with so great a constancy of Courage that they were never heard to utter so much as one syllable of Weakness or Commiseration never seen to turn their back nor so much as to make one cowardly step to evade a Blow but rather expose their Necks to the Adversaries Sword and present themselves to receive the stroke And many of them when wounded to Death have sent to ask the Spectators if they were satisfied with their behaviour before they lay down to dye upon the Place It was not enough for them to Fight and to Dye bravely but cheerfully too insomuch that they were hiss'd and curs'd if they made any Dispute about receiving their Death The very Maids themselves set them on consurgit ad ictus Et quoties victor ferrum jugulo inserit illa Delicias ait esse suas pectusque jacentis Virgo modesta jubet converso pollice rumpi The modest Virgin is delighted so With the fell sport that she applauds the blow And when the Victor baths his bloody brand In 's fellow's Throat and lays him on the sand Then she 's most pleas'd and shews by signs she 'd fain Have him rip up the bosom of the slain The first Romans only condemn'd Criminals to this Example but they have since employ'd innocent Slaves in the work and even Freemen too who sold themselves to this effect nay moreover Senators and Knights of Rome and also Women Nunc caput in mortem vendunt funus arenae Atque hostem sibi quisque parat cum bella quiescunt They sell themselves to death and since the Wars Are ceas'd each for himself a Foe prepares Hos inter fremitus novosque lusus Stat sexus rudis insciusque ferri Et pugnat capit improbus viriles Amidst these Tumults and Alarms The tender Sex unskill'd in Arms Immodestly will try their mights And now engag'd in manly Fights which I should think strange and incredible if we were not accustom'd every day to see in our own Wars many thousands of men of other Nations for Money to stake their Blood and their Lives in Quarrels wherein they have no manner of concern CHAP. XXIV Of the Roman Grandeur I will only say a word or two of this infinite Argument to shew the simplicity of those who compare the pittiful Grandeurs of these Times to that of Rome In the seventh Book of Cicero's Familiar Epistles and let the Grammarians put out that sirname of Familiar if they please for in truth it is not very proper and they who in stead of
the most painful the most mortal and the most irremediable of all Diseases I have already had the tryal of five or six very long and very painful fits and yet I either flatter my self or there is even in this estate what is very well to be endur'd by a man who has his Soul free from the fear of Death and the Menaces Conclusions and Consequences which Physick is ever thundring in our Ears But the effect even of pain it self is not so sharp and intollerable as to put a man of understanding into impatience and despair I have at least this advantage by my Stone that what I could not hitherto wholly prevail upon my self to resolve upon as to reconciling and acquainting my self with Death it will perfect for the more it presses upon and importunes me I shall be so much the less afraid to dye I had already gone so far as only to love Life for Life's sake but my pain will dissolve this Intelligence and God grant that in the end should the sharpness of it be once greater then I shall be able to bear it does not throw me into the other no less vicious extream to desire and wish to dye Summum nec metuas diem nec optes Neither to wish nor fear to dye They are two Passions to be fear'd but the one has its remedy much nearer at hand than the other As to the rest I have always found the Precept that so exactly enjoyns a constant Countenance and so disdainful and indifferent a Comportment in the toleration of Infirmities to be meerly Ceremonial Why should Philosophy which only has respect to Life and its Effects trouble it self about these external Apparences Let us leave that Care to Histrios and Masters of Rhetorick that set so great a value upon our Gestures Let her in God's name allow this vocal Frailty if it be neither cordial nor stomachal to the Disease and permit the ordinary ways of expressing Grief by sighs sobs palpitations and turning pale that Nature has put out of our power And provided the Courage be undaunted and the Expressions not sounding of despair let her be satisfied What makes matter for the wringing of our hands if we do not wring our Thoughts She forms us for our selves not for others to be not to seem let her be satisfied with governing our Understandings which she has taken upon her the care of instructing that in the fury of the Cholick she maintains the Soul in a condition to know it self and to follow its accustom'd way contending with and enduring not meanly truckling under Pain mov'd and heated not subdu'd and conquer'd in the Contention but capable of Discourse and other things to a certain degree In so extream Accidents 't is Cruelty to require so exact a Composedness 'T is no great matter what Faces we cut if we find any ease by it if the Body find it self reliev'd by complaining let him go too if Agitation eases him let him tumble and toss at pleasure if he finds the Disease evaporate as some Physicians hold that it helps Women in delivery extreamly to cry out or if it do but amuse his Torments let him roar aloud Let us not command this Voice to sally but stop it not Epicurus does not only forgive his Sage for crying out in Torments but advises him to it Pugiles etiam quum feriunt in jactandis caestibus ingemiscunt quia profundenda voce omne corpus intenditur venitque plaga vehementior When men fight with Clubs they groan in laying on because the whole strength of Body goes along with the Voice and the blow is laid on with greater force We have enough to do to deal with the Disease without troubling our selves with these superfluous Rules which I say in excuse of those whom we ordinarily see impatient in the assaults of this Infirmity for as to what concerns my self I have pass'd it over hitherto with a little better Countenance and contented my self with grunting without roaring out Not nevertheless that I put any great constraint upon my self to maintain this exterior Decency for I make little account of such an Advantage I allow herein as much as the Pain requires but either my Pains are not so excessive or I have more than ordinary Patience I complain I confess and am a little impatient in a very sharp fit but I do not arrive to such a degree of despair as he who with Ejulatu questu gemitu fremitibus Resonando multum flebiles voces refert Howling Roaring and a thousand noises Express'd his Torment in most dismal Voices I relish my self in the midst of my Dolor and have always found that I was in a Capacity to speak think and give a rational Answer as well as at any other time but not so coldly and indifferently being troubled and interrupted by the Pain When I am look'd upon by my Visiters to be in the greatest Torment and that they therefore forbear to trouble me I oft try my own strength and my self set some Discourse on foot the most remote I can contrive from my present condition I can do any thing upon a sudden endeavour but it must not continue long What pitty 't is I have not the Faculties of that Dreamer Cicero who dreaming he was lying with a Wench found he had discharg'd his Stone in the Sheets My Pains do strangely disappetite me that way In the intervals from this excessive Torment when my Uriters only languish without any great dolor I presently feel my self in my wonted state forasmuch as my Soul takes no other alarm but what is sensible and corporal which I certainly owe to the care I have had of preparing my self by Meditation against such Accidents laborum Nulla mihi nova nunc facies inopinaque surgit Omnia praecepi atque animo mecum ante peregi No face of Pain or Labour now can rise Which by its novelty can me surprize I 've been accustom'd all things to explore And been inur'd unto them long before I am a little roughly handled for a Learner and with a sudden and sharp alteration being fall'n in an instant from a very easie and happy condition of Life into the most uneasie and painful that can be imagin'd For besides that it is a Disease very much to be fear'd in it self it begins with me after a more sharp and severe manner than it uses to do with other men My Fits come so thick upon me that I am scarcely ever at ease and yet I have hitherto kept my mind so upright that provided I can still continue it I find my self in a much better condition of Life than a thousand others who have no Fever nor other Disease but what they create to themselves for want of meditation There is a certain sort of crafty Humility that springs from Presumption as this for Example that we confess our Ignorance in many things and are so courteous as to acknowledge that there are
employ'd than upon your Stomack One asking a Lacedemonian who had made him live so long he made answer the ignorance of Physick And the Emperour Adrian continually exclaim'd as he was dying that the croud of Physicians had kill'd him An ill Wrestler turn'd Physician Courage says Diogenes to him thou hast done well for now thou wilt throw those who have formerly thrown thee But they have this Advantage according to Nicocles that the Sun gives Light to their Success and the Earth covers their Failures and besides they have a very advantageous way of making use of all sorts of Events for what Fortune Nature or any other Causes of which the number is infinite produces of good and healthful in us it is the Priviledge of Physick to attribute to it self All the happy Successes that happen to the Patient must be deriv'd from thence The Occasions that have cur'd me and thousand others Physicians usurp to themselves and their own Skill and as to ill Accidents they either absolutely disown them in laying the fault upon the Patient by such frivolous and idle Reasons as they can never be to seek for as he lay with his Arms out of Bed or he was disturb'd with the ratling of a Coach Rhedarum transitus arcto Vicorum inflexu He heard the Wheels and Horses trampling Feet In the straight turning of a narrow Street or some body had set open the Casement or he had lain upon his left side or had had some odd Fancies in his Head in sum a Word a Dream or a look seem to them excuse sufficient wherewith to palliate their own Errors Or if they so please they yet make use of their growing worse and do their Business that way which can never fail them which is by buzzing us in the Ears when the Disease is more inflam'd by their Medicaments that it had been much worse but for those Remedies He who from an ordinary cold they have thrown into a double Tertian-Ague had but for them been in a continued Fever They do not much care what Mischief they do since it turns to their own Profit In earnest they have Reason to require a very favourable belief from their Patients and indeed it ought to be a very easie one to swallow things so hard to be believ'd Plato said very well that Physicians were the only men that might lye at Pleasure since our Health depends upon the Vanity and Falsity of their Promises Aesop a most excellent Author and of whom few men discover all the Graces does pleasantly represent to us the tyrannical Authority Physicians usurp over poor Creatures weakned and subdued hy Sickness and Fear for he tells us that a sick Person being ask'd by his Physician what Operation he found of the Potion he had given him I have sweat very much says the sick man that 's good says the Physician another time having ask'd him him how he felt himself after his Physick I have been very cold and have had a great shivering upon me said he that is good reply'd the Physician After the third Potion he ask'd him again how he did Why I find my self swell'd and puff'd up said he as if I had a Dropsie That is very well said the Physician One of his Servants coming presently after to inquire how he felt himself Truly Friend said he with being too well I am about to dye There was a more just Law in Egypt by which the Physician for the three first days was to take charge of his Patient at the Patients own Peril and Fortune but those three days being past it was to be at his own For what Reason is it that their Patron Aesculapius should be struck with Thunder for restoring Hyppolitus from Death to Life Nam pater omnipotens aliquem indignatus ab umbris Mortalem infernis ad lumina surgere vitae Ipse repertorem medicinae talis artis Flumine Phaebigenam stygias detrusit ad undas For Jupiter offended at the sight Of one he had struck dead restor'd to light He struck the Artist durst it undertake With his fork'd lightning to the Stygian Lake and his followers be pardoned who send so many Souls from Life to Death A Physician boasting to Nicocles that his Art was of great Authority It is so indeed said Nicocles that can with impunity kill so many People As to what remains had I been of their Counsel I would have render'd my Discipline more sacred and mysterious they had begun well but they have not ended so It was a good beginning to make Gods and Daemons the Authors of their Science and to have us'd a peculiar way of speaking and writing And notwithstanding that Philosophy concludes it folly to persuade a man to his own good by an unintelligible way Vt si quis medicus imperet ut sumat Terrigenam herbigradam domiportam sanguine cassam as if a Physician should command his Patient to take Snails by unknown Names and Epithets It was a good Rule in their Art and that accompanies all other vain fantastick and supernatural Arts that the Patients belief should prepossess them with good hope and assurance of their effects and operation A Rule they hold to that degree as to maintain that the most inexpert and ignorant Physician is more proper for a Patient that has confidence in him than the most learned and experienc'd that he is not acquainted with Nay even the very choice of most of their Drugs is in some sort mysterious and divine The left foot of a Tortoise the Urine of a Lizard the Dung of an Elephant the Liver of a Mole Blood drawn from under the Wing of a white Pidgeon and for us who have the Stone so scornfully they use us in our Miseries the Excrement of Rats beaten to Powder and such like trash and fooleries which rather carry a face of Magical Enchantment than any solid Science I omit the odd number of their Pills the appointment of certain days and feasts of the year the Superstition of gathering their Simples at certain hours and that austere grim Countenance and haughty carriage which Pliny himself so much derides But they have as I said fail'd in that they have not added to this fine beginning the making their Meetings and Consultations more religious and secret where no profane Person ought to have been admitted no more than in the secret Ceremonies of Aesculapius For by Reason of this it falls out that their irresolution the weakness of their Arguments Divination and Foundations the sharpness of their Disputes full of hatred jealousie and particular interest coming to be discover'd by every one a man must be very blind not to discern that he runs a very great hazard in their Hands Who ever saw one Physician approve of anothers Prescription without taking something away or adding something to it By which they sufficiently betray their Art and make it manifest to us that they therein more consider their own Reputation and
mollifies the place where the Gravel and Stone lye and it is also ill by reason that this application of external heat helps the Reins to bake harden and petrifie the Matter so dispos'd For those who are at the Bath it is most healthful to eat little at Night to the end that the Waters they are to drink the next Morning may have a better Operation upon an empty Stomach on the contrary it is better to eat little at Dinner that it hinder not the Operation of the Waters which is not yet perfect and not to oppress the Stomach so soon after the other labour but leave the office of digestion to the Night which will much better perform it than the Day where the Body and Soul are in perpetual moving and action thus do they juggle and cant in all their Discourses at our expence and cannot give me one Proposition against which I cannot erect a contrary of equal force Let them then no longer exclaim against those who in this trouble of Sickness suffer themselves to be gently guided by their own Appetite and the advice of Nature and commit themselves to the common Fortune I have seen in my Travels almost all the famous Baths of Christendom and for some years past have begun to make use of them my self for I look upon bathing as generally wholsom and believe that we suffer no little inconveniences in our Health by having left off the Custom that was generally observ'd in former times almost by all Nations and is yet in many of bathing every day and I cannot imagine but that we are much the worse by having our Limbs crusted and our Pores stopt with dirt and filth And as to the drinking of them Fortune has in the first place render'd them not at all unacceptable to my taste and secondly they are natural and simple which at least carry no danger with them though they do us no good Of which the infinite croud of People of all sorts of Complexions that repair thither I take to be a sufficient warranty And although I have not there observ'd any extraordinary and miraculous Effects but that on the contrary having more narrowly than ordinary enquir'd into it I have found all the reports of such operations that have been spread abroad in those Places ill grounded and false and those that believe them as People are willing to be gull'd in what they desire deceiv'd in them yet I have seldom known any that have been made worse by those Waters and a man cannot honestly deny but that they beget a better Appetite help Digestion and do in some sort revive us if we do not go too late and in too weak a Condition which I would dissuade every one from doing They have not the virtue to raise men from desperate and inveterate Diseases but they may help some light Indisposition or prevent some threatning Alteration Who does not bring along with him so much cheerfulness as to enjoy the pleasure of the Company he will there meet and of the Walks and Exercises to which the amenity of those Places invite us will doubtless lose the best and surest part of their Effect For this reason I have hitherto chosen to go to those of the most pleasant Scituation where there was the best conveniency of Lodging Provision and Company as the Baths of Bavieres in France those of Plombieres in the Frontiers of Germany and Lorrain those of Baden in Swizerland those of Lucque in Tuscany and especially those Della-Villa which I have the most and at several Seasons frequented Every Nation has particular Opinions touching their Use and several Rules and Methods in using them and all of them according to what I have seen almost of like Effect Drinking of them is not at all receiv'd in Germany they bath for all Diseases only and will lye dabling in the Water almost from Sun to Sun In Italy when they drink nine days they bath at least thirty and commonly drink the Water mixt with some other Drugs to make it work the better We are here order'd to walk to digest it there they are kept in bed after taking it till it be wrought off their Stomachs and Feet having continually hot cloths apply'd to them all the while and as the Germans have a particular practise generally to use Cupping and Scarification in the Bath So the Italians have their Doccie which are certain little Channels of this hot Water brought thorough Pipes and with them bath an hour in the Morning and as much in the Afternoon for a Month together either the Head Stomach or any other part where the Grief lies There are infinite other varieties of Customs in every Country or rather there is no manner of resemblance to one another By which you may see that this little part of Physick to which I have only submitted though the least depending upon Art of all others has yet a great share of the confusion and incertainty every where else manifest in their Profession The Poets say whatever they please with greater Emphasis and Grace witness these two Epigrams Alcon hesterno signum Jovis attigit illa Quamvis marmoreus vim patitur medici Ecce hodie jussus transferri ex aede vetusta Effertur quamvis sit Deus atque Lapis Alcon did yesterday Joves Statue touch Which although Marble suffer'd by it much For to day order being given it shou'd Be taken from th' old Temple where it stood The thing without further delay was done Although he was a God and made of Stone and the other Lotus nobiscum est hilaris coenavit idem Inventus mane est mortuus Andragoras Tam subitae mortis causam Faustine requiris In somnis medicum viderat Hermocratem Andragoras bath'd sup'd and went well to bed Last Night but in the Morning was found dead Would'st know Faustinus what was his Disease He dreaming saw the Quack Hermocrates Upon which I will relate two Stories The Baron of Caupene in Chalosse and I have betwixt us the Advouzon of a Benefice of great extent at the foot of our Mountains call'd Lahontan It is with the Inhabitants of this Angle as 't is said of those of the Vale of Angrougne they liv'd a peculiar sort of Life their Fashions Cloths and Manners distinct from other People rul'd and govern'd by certain particular Laws and Vsances receiv'd from Father to Son to which they submitted without other constraint than the Reverence to Custom This little State had continued from all Antiquity in so happy a Condition that no neighbouring Judge was ever put to the trouble of enquiring into their doings no Advocate ever retain'd to give them Counsel nor Stranger ever call'd in to compose their Differences nor was ever any of them seen to go a begging They avoided all Alliances and Traffick with the other World that they might not corrupt the Purity of their own Government till as they say one of them in the memory of man having
he represents he will imprint in himself a true and real Grief by means of the part he plays to transmit it to the Audience who are yet less concern'd than he as they do who are hir'd at Funerals to assist in the ceremony of Sorrow who fell their Tears and Mourning by weight and measure For although they act in a borrow'd Form nevertheless by habituating themselves and settling their Countenances to the occasion 't is most certain they oft are really affected with a true and real Sorrow I was one amongst several other of his Friends who convey'd the Body of Monsieur de Grammont to Soissons from the siege of la Fere where he was slain I observ'd that in all places we pass'd through we met with sorrowful Countenances occasion'd by the meer solemn pomp of our Convoy for the Name of the Defunct was not there so much as known Quintillian reports to have seen Comedians so deeply engag'd in a Mourning part that they could not give over weeping when they came home and who having taken upon them to stir up Passion in another have themselves espous'd it to that degree as to find themselves infected with it not only to Tears but moreover with Paleness and the comportment of men really over-whelm'd with Grief In a Countrey near our Mountains the Women play Priest Martin that is to say both the Priest and the Clerk for as they augment the regret of the deceased Husband by the remembrance of the good and agreeable Qualities he was master of they also at the same time make a register of and publish his imperfections as if of themselves to enter into some compensation and so divert themselves from compassion to disdain and yet with much better grace than we who when we lose an old Acquaintance strive to give him new and false praises and to make him quite another thing when we have lost sight of him than he appear'd to us when we did see him as if regret was an instructive thing or that tears by washing our Understandings clear'd them For my part I henceforth renounce all favourable testimonies men would give of me not because I shall not be worthy of them but because I shall be dead Whoever shall ask a man what Interest have you in this Siege the interest of Example he will say and of the common obedience to my Prince I pretend to no profit by it and for glory I know how small a part can reflect upon such a private man as I I have here neither passion nor quarrel And yet you shall see him the next day quite another man chasing and red with fury rang'd in Battel for the Assault 't is the glittering of so much Steel the fire and noise of our Canon and Drums that have infus'd this new Rancour and Fury into his Veins A frivolous Cause you will say how a Cause There needs none to agitate the mind a meer whimsie without body and without subject will rule and sway it Let me think of building Castles in Spain my imagination suggests to me Conveniences and Pleasures with which my Soul is really delighted and pleas'd How oft do we torment our Mind with Anger or Sorrow by such shadows and engage our selves in fantastick Passions that alter both the Soul and Body What astonish'd fleering and confus'd Grimaces does this raving put our Faces into What sallies and agitation both of Members and Voices does it inspire us with Does it not seem that this individual man has false Visions from the crowd of others with whom he has to do or that he is possess'd with some internal Daemon that persecutes him Enquire of your self where is the object of this Mutation Is there any thing but us in Nature but subsisting nullity over which it has power Cambyses for having dreamt that his Brother should be one day King of Persia put him to death a beloved Brother and one in whom he had always confided Aristodemus King of the Messenians kill'd himself out of a fancy of ill Omen from I know not what howling of his Dogs and King Midas did as much upon the account of some foolish dream he had dream'd 'T is to prize Life at its just value to abandon it for a dream and yet here the Soul triumphs over the miseries and weakness of the Body and truly in that it is expos'd to all offences and alterations it has reason to speak after this manner O prima infoelix fingenti Terra Prometheo Ille parum cauti pectori egit opus Corpora disponens mentem non vidit in arte Recta Animi primum debuit esse via Oh 't was for man a most unhappy Day When rash Prometheus form'd him out of Clay In his attempt th' ambitious Architect Did indiscreetly the main thing neglect In framing Bodies he had not the Art To form the Mind which is the chiefest part CHAP. V. Vpon some Verses of Virgil. BY how much profitable Thoughts are more full and solid by so much are they also more cumbersome and heavy Vice Death Poverty Diseases are grave and grievous Subjects A man must have his Soul instructed in the means to sustain and to contend with Evils and in the rules of living and believing well and often rouse it up and exercise it in this noble study But in an ordinary Soul it must be by intervals and with Moderation it will otherwise grow besotted if continually intent upon it I found it necessary when I was young to put my self in mind and to sollicit my self to keep me to my Duty Gayety and Health do not they say so well agree with those grave and serious Meditations I am at present in another Condition The Indispositions of Age do but too much put me in mind and preach to me From the excess of spriteliness I am fallen into that of Severity which is much more troublesome And for that reason I now suffer my self on purpose a little to run into disorder and sometimes busie my Mind in wanton and youthful Thoughts wherewith it diverts it self I am of late but too reserv'd too heavy and too ripe my Age does every day read to me new Lectures of Coldness and Temperance This Body of mine avoids Disorder and dreads it 't is now my Body's turn to guide my Mind towards Reformation it governs in turn and more rudely and imperiously than the other it lets me not an hour alone sleeping nor waking but is always preaching to me Death Patience and Repentance I now defend my self from Temperance as I have formerly done from Pleasure it draws me too much back and even to Stupidity Now I will be Master of my self to all intents and purposes Wisdom has its excess and has no less need of Moderation than Folly Therefore lest I should wither dry up and overcharge my self with Prudence in the intervals and truces my Infirmities allow me Mens intenta suis ne siet usque malis That my Mind may'nt
eternally be bent And fix'd upon Subjects discontent I gently decline it and turn away my Eyes from the stormy and frowning Sky I have before me which thanks be to God I consider without Fear but not without Meditation and Debate And amuse my self in the remembrance of my better years Animus quod perdidit optat Atque in praeterita se totus imagine versat The Mind what it has lost wishes to have And on things past eternally does rave Let Infancy look forward and Age backward Is not this the signification of Janus his double Face Let Years hale me along if they will but it shall be backward As long as my Eyes can discern the pleasant Season expir'd I shall now and then turn them that way Though it escape from my Blood and Veins I shall not however root the Image of it out of my Memory hoc est Vivere bis Vita posse priore fui 'T is to live twice to him who can obtain Of thought t' enjoy his former Life again Plato ordains that old men should be present at the Exercises Dances and Sports of young People that they may rejoyce in others for the Activity and Beauty of Body which is no more in themselves and call to mind the Grace and Comeliness of that flourishing Age And will that in these Recreations the Honour of the prize should be given to that young man who has most diverted the Company I was formerly wont to mark cloudy and gloomy days for extraordinary those are now my ordinary ones the extraordinary are the clear and bright I am ready to leap out of my Skin for Joy as for an unwonted favour when nothing ails me Let me tickle my self presently after I cannot force a poor smile from this wretched Body of mine I am only merry in conceit by artifice to divert the melancholly of Age but doubtless it requires another Remedy â—han the Efficacy of a Dream A weak contest of Art against Nature 'T is great folly to lengthen and anticipate humane Inconveniencies as every one does I had rather be a less while old than to be old before I am really so I seize on even the least occcasions of Pleasure I can meet I know very well by hear-say several sorts of prudent Pleasures that are effectually so and glorious to boot but Opinion has not power enough over me to give me an Appetite to them I covet not so much to have them magnanimous magnifick and lofty as I do to have them sweet facile and ready A Natura discedimus Populo nos damus nullius rei bono auctori We depart from Nature and give our selves to the People who understand nothing My Philosophy is in Action in natural and present Practice very little in Fancy What if I have a Mind to play at Cob-nut or to whip a Top Non ponebat enim Rumores ante Salutem He was too wise Idle Reports before his Health to prize Pleasure is a Quality of very little Ambition it thinks it self rich enough of it self without any addition of Repute and is best pleas'd where most obscure A young man should be whipt who pretends to a Palate in Wine and Sawces there was nothing which at that Age I less valued or knew now I begin to learn I am very muâ—h asham'd on 't but what should I do I am more asham'd and vex'd at the Occasions that put me upon 't 'T is for us to doat and trifle away the time and for Young-men to stand upon their Reputation and the Punctilio's of Honour they are going towards the World and the Worlds Opinion we are retiring from it Sibi Arma sibi Equos sibi Hastas sibi Clavam sibi Pilam sibi Nationes Cursus habent nobis senibus ex lusionibus multis talos relinquant tesseras Let them reserve to themselves Arms Horses Spears Clubs Tennis Swimming and Races and of their numerous Sports and Exercises leave to us old Men the diversion of Cards and Dice The Laws themselves send us home to our Lodgings I can do no less in favour of this wretched Condition into which my Age has thrown me than furnish it with Toys to play withall as they do Children and we also become such Both Wisdom and Folly will have enough to do to support and relieve me by alternate Offices in this Calamity of Age. Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem Short follies mix with Counsels wise I accordingly avoid the lightest Punctures and those that formerly would not have rippled the Skin do now pierce me through and through My habit of Body is now so naturally declining to Evil In fragili corpore odiosa omnis offensio est To a decrepid Body all offence is hatefull Mensque pati durum sustinet aegra nihil And a sick Mind nothing that 's hard endures I have ever been tender in matters of offence I am much more tender now and open throughout Et minime vires frangere quassa valent And little force will break what 's crack'd before My Judgment restrains me from kicking against and murmuring at the inconveniencies that Nature orders me to endure but it does not take away my Feeling I who have no other thing in my prospect but to live and be merry would run from one end of the World to the other to seek out one good Year of pleasant and jocund Tranquility A melancholick and dull Tranquility is I confess enough for me but it benumns stupifies and besots me I am not contented with it If there be any Person any knot of good Company in Countrey or City in France or elsewhere Resident or in Motion who can like my Humour and whose Humours I can like let them but whistle and I will run to furnish them with Essays of Flesh and Bone Seeing it is the priviledge of the Mind to rescue it self from old Age I advise mine to it with all the power I have let it in the interim continue green and flourish if it can like Mistletoe upon a dead Tree But I fear 't is a Traytor it has contracted so strict a Fraternity with the Body that it leaves me at every turn to follow that in its need I wheedle and deal with it apart in vain I try to much purpose to wean it from this Correspondence to much effect quote to it Seneca and Catullus and represent to it beautiful Ladies and Royal Masques if its Companion have the Stone it seems to have it too Even the Faculties that are most peculiarly and properly its own cannot then perform their Functions but manifestly appear stupified and asleep there is no spriteliness in its Productions if there be not at the same time an equal Proportion in the Body too Our Masters are too blame that in searching out the causes of the extraordinary emotions of the Soul besides attributing it to a Divine Extasie Love Martial Fierceness Poesie and Wine they have not also attributed a
part to Health A boyling vigorous full and lazy Health such as formerly the verdure of Youth and security by fits supply'd me withall that Fire of Spriteliness and Gayety darts into the Mind flashes that are lively and bright beyond our natural Light and with the most working if not the most desparate Enthusiasms It is then no wonder if a contrary Estate stupifie and clog my Spirit and produce a contrary Effect Ad nullum consurgit opus cum corpore languet For when the Body languishing doth lye I to no Office can my self apply And yet would have me oblig'd to it for giving much less consent to this Stupidity than other men of my Age ordinarily do Let us at least whilst we have Truce drive away incommodities and difficulties from our Commerce Dum licet obducta solvatur fronte senectus Whilst Strength is fresh and us it well becoms Let 's old Age banish which the Brow benums Tetrica sunt amaenanda jocularibus Soure things are to be sweetned with those that are pleasant I love a gay and civil Wisdom and fly from all sourness and austerity of Manners all grumness of Faction being suspected to me I am very much of Plato's Opinion who says That facile or difficile Humours are a great Prejudice to the good or ill Disposition of the Mind Socrates had a constant Countenance but withall serene and smiling not sourely constant like the elder Crassus that never any one saw Laugh Virtue is a pleasant and gay Quality I know very well that few will quarrel with the liberty of my Writings who have not more to quarrel with in the Licence of their own Thoughts I conform my self well enough to their Inclinations but I offend their Eyes 'T is a pretty Humour to strain the Writings of Plato to wrest his pretended Negotiation with Phaedo Dion Stella and Archeanassa Non pudeat dicere quod non pudeat sentire Let us not be asham'd to speak what we are not asham'd to think I hate a froward and pensive Spirit that slips over all the Pleasures of Life and seizes and feeds upon Misfortunes like Flies that cannot stick to a sleek and polish'd Body but fix and repose themselves upon craggy and rough Places and like Cupping-glasses that only suck and attract the worst Blood As to the rest I have enjoyn'd my self to dare to say all that I dare to do and even thoughts that are not to be publish'd displease me the worst of my Actions and Qualities do not appear to me so foul as I find it foul and base not to dare to own them Every one is wary and discreet in Confession but men ought to be so in Action The boldness of doing ill is in some sort recompenc'd and restrain'd by the boldness of confessing it Whoever will oblige himself to tell all should oblige himself to do nothing that he must be forc'd to conceal I wish that this excessive License of mine may draw men to freedom above these timorous and mincing pretended vertues sprung from our imperfections and that at the expence of my immoderation I may reduce them to reason A man must see and study his Vice to correct it they who conceal it from others commonly conceal it from themselves and do not think they sin close enough if they themselves see it They withdraw and disguise them from their own Consciences Quare vitia sua nemo confitetur Quia etiam nunc in illis est somnium narrare vigilantis est Why does no man confess his Vices Because he is yet in them 't is for a waking man to tell his dream The diseases of the Body explain themselves in increasing We find that to be the Gout which we call'd a Rheum or a Strain The diseases of the Soul the greater they are keep themselves the more obscure and the most sick are the least sensible Therefore it is that with an unrelenting hand they must often in the day be taken to task open'd and torn from the hollow of the heart As in doing well so in doing ill the meer confession is sometimes satisfaction Is there any deformity in doing amiss that can excuse us from confessing our selves It is so great a pain to me to dissemble that I evade the trust of anothers Secrets wanting the heart to disavow my knowledge I can conceal it but deny it I cannot without the greatest trouble and violence to my self imaginable To be very secret a man must be so by nature not by obligation 'T is little worth in the service of a Prince to be secret if a man be not a Lyar to boot If he who ask'd Thales the Milesian whether he ought solemnly to deny that he had committed uncleanness had apply'd himself to me I should have told him that he ought not to do it for I look upon Lying as a worse fault than the other Thales advis'd him quite contrary bidding him swear to secure the greater fault by the less nevertheless this counsel was not so much an election as a multiplication of Vice Upon which let us say this by the bye that we deal sincerely and well with a man of Conscience when we propose to him some difficulty in counterpoise of the Vice but when we shut him up betwixt two Vices he is put to a hard choice as Origen was either to Idolatrize or to suffer himself to be carnally abus'd by a great Ethiopian Slave was brought to him He submitted to the first condition and vitiously says one And yet those Women of our times are not to be dislik'd who according to their errour protest they had rather burden their Consciences with ten men than one Mass. If it be indiscretion so to publish their Errors yet there is no great danger that it pass into Example and Custom For Aristo said that the winds men most fear'd were those that laid them open we must tuck up this ridiculous rag that hides our manners they send their Consciences to the Stewes and keep a starch'd Countenance Even Traytors and Assassins espouse the Laws of Ceremony and there fix their Duty so that neither can Injustice complain of incivility nor Malice of indiscretion 'T is pity but an ill man should be a Fool to boot and that Decency should palliate his Vice This rough-cast only appertains to a good and sound Wall that deserves to be preserv'd and whited In favour of the Hugonots who condemn our Auricular and private Confession I confess my self in publick religiously and purely St. Augustin Origen and Hippocrates have publish'd the Errors of their Opinions and I moreover of my Manners I am greedy of making my self known and I care not to how many provided it be truly or to say better I hunger for nothing but I mortally hate to be mistaken by those who come to learn my Name He that does all things for Honour and Glory what can he think to gain by shewing himself to the World
more particular uncertain and contradicted they are by so much thou employ'st thy whole endeavour in them The Laws of thy Parish bind thee those of the World concern thee not run but a little over the Examples of this kind thy Life is full of them Whilst the Verses of these two Poets treat so reservedly and discreetly of wantonness as they do methinks they discover it much more Ladies cover their Necks with Net-work as Priests do several sacred things and Painters shadow their Pictures to give them greater lustre and 't is said that the Sun and Wind strike more violently by Reflection than in a direct Line The Aegyptian wisely answer'd him who ask'd him what he had under his Cloak it is hid under my Cloak said he that thou mayst not know what it is but there are certain other things that People hide only to shew them Hear this that speaks plainer Et nudam pressi corpus adusque meum And in these naked Arms of mine Her naked Body I did twine methinks I am eunuch'd with the Expression Let Martial turn up Venus's Coats as high as he can he cannot shew her so naked He who says all that is to be said gluts and disgusts us He who is afraid to express himself draws us on to guess at more than is meant There is a kind of treachery in this sort of Modesty and specially whilst they half open as they do so fair a path to Imagination both the action and description should relish theft The more respective more timorous more coy and secret Love of the Spaniards and Italians please me I know not who of old wish'd his weason as long as that of a Crane that he might the longer taste what he swallow'd it had been better wish'd in this quick and precipitous Pleasure especially in such natures as mine that had the fault of being too prompt To stop its flight and delay it with preambles all things a Wink a Bow a Word a Sign stand for favour and recompence betwixt them Were it not an excellent piece of Thrift in him that could dine on the steam of the roast 'T is a Passion that mixes very little with solid Essence much more with vanity and feverish raving and we are to reward and pay it accordingly Let us teach the Ladies to value and esteem themselves to amuse and fool us We give the last Charge at the first Onset the French impetuosity will still shew it self By spinning out their favours and exposing them in small parcels even miserable old Age it self will find some little share of reward according to its worth and merit who has no fruition but in fruition who wins nothing unless he sweeps the stakes and who takes no pleasure in the chace but in the quarry ought not to introduce himself in our School The more steps and greices there are so much higher and more honourable is the uppermost Seat We should take a pleasure in being conducted to it as in magnificent Palaces by Portico's Entries long and pleasant Galleries by many turns and windings This disposition of things would turn to our advantage we should there longer stay and longer love without hope and without desire we proceed not worth a pin Our Conquest and intire possession is what they ought infinitely to dread when they wholly surrender themselves up to the mercy of our Fidelity and Constancy they run a mighty hazard they are Virtues very rare and hard to be found they are no sooner ours but we are no more theirs Postquam cupidae mentis satiata libido est Verba nihil metuere nihil perjuria curant When our Desires and Lusts once sated are For Oaths and Promises we little care And Thrasonides a young man of Greece was so in love with his Passion that having gain'd a Mistresses consent he refus'd to enjoy her that he might not by fruition quench and stupifie the unquiet ardour of which he was so proud and with which he so pleased himself Dearness is a good Sauce to Meat Do but observe how much the manner of Salutation particular to our Nation has by its facility made Kisses which Socrates sayes so powerful and dangerous for the stealing of Hearts of no esteem It is a nauseous and injurious Custom for the Ladies that they must be oblig'd to lend their Lips to every Fellow that has three Foot-men at his heels how nasty or deform'd soever Cujus livida naribus caninis Dependet glacies rigetque barba Centum occurrere malo culilingis And we do not get much by the bargain for as the World is divided for three beautiful Women we must kiss threescore ugly ones and to a tender Stomach like those of my Age an ill kiss over pays a good one In Italy they passionately court even their common Women who prostitute themselves for money and justifie the doing so by saying that there are degrees of fruition and that by their Services they will procure themselves that which is best and most intire They sell nothing but their Bodies the Will is too free and too much its own to be expos'd to sale so say these that 't is the Will they undertake and they have reason 'T is indeed the Will that we are to serve and have to do withall I abhor to imagine mine in a Body without Affection And this madness is methinks Cousin-German to that of the Boy who would needs lye with the beautiful Statue of Venus made by Praxiteles or that of the furious Egyptian who violated the dead Carcass of a Woman he was embalming which was the occasion of the Law afterwards made in Egypt that the Corps of beautiful young Women of those of good Quality should be kept three dayes before they should be delivered to those whose Office it was to take care for the Interrment Periander did more wonderfully who extended his conjugal Affection more regular and legitimate to the enjoyment of his Wife Melissa after she was dead Does it not seem a Lunatick humour in the Moon seeing she could no otherwise enjoy her Darling Endymion to lay him for several Months asleep and to please her self with the fruition of a Boy who stirr'd not but in his sleep I likewise say that we love a Body without a Soul when we love a Body without its consent and concurring desire All Enjoyments are not alike There are some that are Hectick and languishing a thousand other causes besides good Will may procure us this Favour from the Ladies this is not a sufficient testimony of Affection Treachery may lurk there as well as elsewhere they sometimes go to 't but by halves tanquam thura merumque parent absentem marmoreamve putes So coldly they unto the work prepare You 'd think them absent or else marble were I know some who had rather lend that than their Coach and who only impart themselves that way You are to examin whether your company pleases them upon any
relation and correspondence the other Pleasures we receive may be acknowledg'd by recompences of another nature but this is not to be paid but with the same kind of Coin In earnest in this sport the Pleasure I give does more tickle my imagination than that they give me Now as he has nothing of generosity in him that can receive a courtesie where he conferrs none it must needs be a mean Soul that will owe all and can be contented to maintain a Friendship with Persons to whom he is a continual charge There is no Beauty Grace nor Privacy so exquisite that a gallant man ought to desire at this rate If they only can be kind to us out of Pity I had much rather dye than live upon Charity I would have right to ask in the style that I saw some beg in Italy Fate ben per voi Do good for your self or after the manner that Cyrus exhorted his Souldiers Who loves me follow me Consort your self some one will say to me with Women of your own condition whom the company of one of the same Age will render more easie to your desire O ridiculous and stupid composition nolo Barbam vellere mortuo Leoni Rouse not a sleeping Lioness Xenophon lays it for an objection and an accusation against Menon that he never made love to any but old Women for my part I take more pleasure in seeing only the just and sweet mixture of two young Beauties or only to meditate of it in my fancy than to be my self an Actor in the second with a deform'd creature I leave that fantastick Appetite to the Emperour Galba that was only for old curried flesh and to this poor wretch O ego Di faciant talem te cernere possim Charaque mutatis oscula ferre comis Amplectique meis corpus non pingue lacertis O would to Heaven that such I might thee see To kiss those Locks gray with Antiquity And thy lank wither'd Body to embrace And amongst the Deformities I reckon forc'd and artificial Beauties Emonez a young Curtezan of Chios thinking by fine dressing to acquire the Beauty that Nature had deny'd her came to the Philosopher Arcesilaus and ask'd him if it was possible for a wise man to be in love Yes reply'd he provided it be not with a sarded and adulterated Beauty like thine The Deformity of a confess'd Antiquity is not to me so despiseable and nauseous as another that is polish'd and plaister'd up Shall I speak it without the danger of having my Throat cut Love in my Opinion is not properly and naturally in its Season but in the Age next to Child-hood Quem si puellarum insereres choro Mille sagaces falleret hospites Discrimen obscurum solutis Crinibus ambiguoque vultu Whom should you with dishevell'd Hair And that ambiguous face bring in Amongst the Chorus of the fair He would deceive the subtlest there So smooth so rosie is his Skin nor beauty neither For whereas Homer extends it so far as to the budding of the Chin Plato himself has observ'd it for rare And the reason why the Sophist Dion call'd the first appearing Hairs of adolescence Aristogitons and Harmodii is sufficiently known I find it in virility already in some sort a little out of date though not so much as in old Age. Importunus enim transvolat aridas Quercus Love restless with quick motion flies From wither'd Oaks And Marguerite Queen of Navarre like a Woman does very far extend the Advantage of Women ordaining that it is time at thirty years old to convert the title of Fair into that of Good The shorter Authority we give him over our lives 't is so much the better for us Do but observe his Comportment 't is a beardless Boy that knows not how they proceed in his School contrary to all Order Study Exercise and Usance are ways for Insufficiency to proceed by There Novices rule Amor ordinem nescit Love knows no Order Doubtless his conduct is much more graceful when mixt with Inadvertency and Trouble Miscarriages and ill Successes give him Appetite and Grace provided it be sharp and eager 't is no great matter whether it be prudent or no. Do but observe how he goes reeling tripping and playing you put him in the Stocks when you guide him by Art and Wisdom and he is restrain'd of his Divine Liberty when put into those hairy and callous Clutches As to the rest I oft hear them set out this Intelligence as intirely spiritual and disdain to put the interest the Senses there have into Consideration Every thing there serves turn but I can say that I have often seen that we have excus'd the weakness of their Understandings in favour of their outward Beauty but have never yet seen that in favour of a mind how mature and well-dispos'd soever any one would lend a hand to support a Body that was never so little decay'd Why does not some one make an attempt to make that noble Socratical Contract and Union of the Body to the Soul purchasing a philosophical and spiritual Intelligence and Generation at the price of his Thighs which is the highest price it can amount to Plato ordains in his Laws that he who has perform'd any signal and advantageous Exploit in War may not be refus'd during the whole Expedition his Age or Deformity notwithstanding a kiss or any other amorous Favour from any whatever What he thinks to be so just in Recommendation of Military Valour why may it not be the same in Recommendation of any other good Quality And why does not some Woman take a fancy to prepossess over her Companions the Glory of this chaste Love I may well say chaste nam si quando ad praelia ventum est Vt quondam in stipulis magnus sine viribus ignis Incassum furit For when to joyn Love's Battel they engage Like Fire in Straw they fondly spend their rage the Vices that are stifled in the thought are not the worst To conclude this notable Commentary which has escap'd from me in a Torrent of babble a Torrent sometimes impetuous and offensive Vt missum sponsi furtivo munere malum Procurrit casto Virginis è gremio Quod miserae oblitae molli sub veste locatum Dum adventu matris prosilit excutitur Atque illud prono praeceps agitur decursu Huic manat tristi conscius ore rubor As a fair Apple by a Lover sent To 's Mistriss for a private Complement Does tumble from the rosie Virgins lap Where she had quite forgot it by mishap When starting at her Mothers coming in It is shak'd out her Garments from between And rouls over the Floor before her Eyes A guilty blush her fair Complexion dyes I say that Males and Females are cast in the same Mould and that Education and Usage excepted the difference is not great Plato indifferently invites both the one and the other to the
noise and that some honest man after chooses out and raises from the shade to produce it to the light upon its own account Mihi quidem laudaliora videntur omnia quae sine venditatione sine populo teste fiunt All things truly seem more laudable to me that are perform'd without ostentation and without the testimony of the People Says the proudest man of the World I had no care but to conserve and to continue which are silent and insensible effects Innovation is of great lustre but 't is interdicted in this time when we are press'd upon and have nothing to defend our selves from but Novelties To forbear doing is oft as generous as to do but 't is less in the light and the little of good that I have in me is of this kind In fine occasions in this Imployment of mine have been confederate with my Humour and I thank them for it Is there any one who desires to be sick that he might see his Physicians Practice And would not that Physician deserve to be whip'd who should wish the Plague amongst us that he might put his Art in practice I have never been of that wicked Humour and common enough to desire that the troubles and disorders of this City should elevate and honour my Government I have ever willingly contributed all I could to their tranquility and ease He who will not thank me for the order sweet and silent calm that has accompanied my Administration cannot however deprive me of the share that belongs to me by the title of my good Fortune And I am of such a Composition that I would as willingly be happy as wise and had rather owe my successes purely to the favour of Almighty God than to any industry or operation of my own I had sufficiently publish'd to the World my unfitness for such publick Offices but I have something in me yet worse than incapacity which is that I am not much displeased at it and that I do not much go about to cure it considering the course of Life that I have propos'd to my self Neither have I satisfied my self in this Imployment but I have very near arrived at what I expected from my own performance and have yet much surpass'd what I promised them with whom I had to do For I am apt to promise something less than what I am able to do and than what I hope to make good I assure my self that I have left no impressions of Offence or Hatred behind me and to leave a regret or desire of me amongst them I at least know very well that I did never much affect it méne huic confidere monstro Méne salis placidi vultum fluctusque quietos Ignorare Would'st thou I should a quiet Sea believe To this inconstant monster credit give CHAP. XI Of Cripples 'T Is now two or three years ago that they made the year ten days shorter in France How many changes may we expect should folow this reformation This was properly removing Heaven and Earth at once and yet nothing for all that stirs from its place my neighbours still find their seasons of sowing and reaping the opportunities of doing their business with the hurtful and propitious days just at the same time where they had time out of mind assign'd them There was no more errour perceived in our old usance than there is amendment found in this new alteration So great an incertainty there is throughout so gross obscure and dull is our understanding 'T is said that this regulation might have been carried on with less inconvenience by substracting according to the example of Augustus the Bissextile which is in some sort a day of trouble till we had exactly satisfied that debt which is not perform'd neither by this correction and we yet remain some days in arrear And yet by the same means such order might be taken for the future ordering that after the revolution of such a year or such a number of years the supernumerary day might be alwayes thrown out so that we could not henceforward erre above four and twenty hours in our computation We have no other account of time but years the World has for many Ages made use of that only and yet it is a measure that to this day we are not agreed upon such a one that we still doubt what form other Nations have variously given to it and what was the true use of it What does this saying of some mean that the Heavens in growing old bow themselves down nearer towards us and put us into an uncertainty even of hours and days And that which Plutarch says of the Months that Astrology had not in his time determin'd of the motion of the Moon So what a fine condition are we in to keep Records of things past I was just now ruminating as I often do upon this what a free and roving thing humane judgment is I ordinarily see that men in things propos'd to them more willingly study to find out the Reason than to find out the Truth they slip over presuppositions but are curious in examination of consequences They leave the things and fly to the causes Pleasant praters The knowledge of Causes does only concern him who has the conduct of things not us who are only to undergo them and who perfectly have full and accomplish'd use of them according to our need without penetrating into the Original and Essence Neither is Wine more pleasant to him that knows its first faculties On the contrary both the Body and the Soul alter and interrupt the right they have of the use of the World and of themselves by mixing with it the Opinion of Learning Effects concern us but the means not at all To determine and to distribute appertain to superiority and command as it does to subjection to accept it Let me reprehend our Custom They commonly begin thus How is such a thing done Whereas they should say Is such a thing done Our prattle is able to create a hundred other Worlds and to find out the beginnings and contexture it needs neither Matter nor Foundation Let it but run on it builds as well in the Air as on the Earth and with Inanity as well as Matter dare pondus idonea fumo I find that almost throughout we should say there is no such thing and should my self oft make use of this answer but I dare not for they cry that it is a defect produc'd from ignorance and weakness of Understanding And I am forc'd for the most part to juggle for Company and prate of frivolous and idle Subjects that I believe ne're a word of Besides that in truth 't is a little rude and quarelling flatly to deny a Proposition and few People but will affirm especially in things hard to be believ'd that they have seen them or at least will name such Witnesses whose Authority will stop our Mouths from Contradictions By this means we know the Foundations
such a Person I do quite contrary and amongst so many borrow'd things am glad if I can steal one disguising and altering it for some new service at the hazard of having it said that 't is for want of understanding its natural use I give it some particular address of my own hand to the end it may not be so absolutely strange These set their thefts to shew and value themselves upon them And also they have more credit with the Laws than with me We Naturalists think that there is a great and incomparable preference in the honour of Invention to that of Quotation If I would have spoke by Learning I had spoke sooner I had writ in a time nearer to my Studies when I had more Wit and better Memory and would sooner have trusted to the vigour of that Age than this would I have profess'd Writing And what if this gracious Favour which Fortune has lately offer'd me upon the account of this work had befall'n me in such a time of my Life instead of this wherein 't is equally desirable to possess and ready to lose Two of my Acquaintance great men in this faculty have in my Opinion lost half in refusing to publish at forty years old that they might stay till threescore Maturity has its defects as well as verdure and worse and old age is as unfit for this kind of business as any other Who commits his Decrepitude to the Press plays the fool if he think to squeeze any thing out thence that does not relish of Dotage and Stupidity Our Wits grow costive and thick in growing old I deliver my Ignorance in pomp and state and my Learning meagerly and poorly this accidentally and accessorily that principally and expresly and write purposely of nothing but nothing nor of any Science but that of Inscience I have chosen a time when my Life which I am to give an account of lies wholly before me what remains holds more of Death And of my death only should I find it a prating death as others do I would moreover give an account at my departure Socrates was a perfect Exemplar in all great Qualities and I am vext that he had so deform'd a Body as is said and so unsuitable to the Beauty of his Soul himself being so amorous and such an admirer of Beauty Nature surely did him wrong There is nothing more likely than a conformity and relation of the Body to the Soul Ipsi animi magni refert quali in corpore locati sint multi enim è corpore exâ—stunt quae acuunt montem multa quae obtundant It is of great consequence in what Bodies Souls are plac'd for many things spring from the Body that sharpen the Mind and many that blunt and dull it This speaks of an unnatural ugliness and deformity of Limbs but we call that ill-favour'dness also an unseemliness at first sight which is principally lodg'd in the Face and distasts us by the Complexion a Spot a rude Countenance sometimes from some inexplicable cause in members nevertheless of good simmetry and perfect The Deformity that cloth'd a very beautiful Soul in Boetia was of this Predicament That superficial ugliness which nevertheless is always the most imperious is of least prejudice to the state of the Mind and of little certainty in the Opinion of men The other which by a more proper name is call'd a more substantial Deformity strikes deeper in Not every Shooe of smooth sliming Leather but every Shooe neatly made shews the interior shape of the Foot As Socrates said of his that it accus'd just so much in his Soul had he not corrected it by institution but in saying so I believe he did but scoff as his Custom was and never so excellent a Soul made it self I cannot oft enough repeat how great an esteem I have for Beauty that potent and advantageous Quality He call'd it a short Tyranny and Plato the Priviledge of Nature We have nothing that excells it in Reputation it has the first place in the commerce of men it presents it self to meet 〈◊〉 seduces and prepossesses our Judgments with great Authority and wonderful Impression Phrâ—ne had lost her Cause in the hands of an excellent Advocate if opening her Robe she had not corrupted her Judges by the lustre of her Beauty And I find that Cyrus Alexanâ—nder and Caesar the three Masters of the World never neglected Beauty in their greatest Affairs no more did the first Scipio The same word in Greek signifies both fair and good and the Holy-Ghost oft calls those good whom he means fair I should willingly maintain the priority in things call'd goods according to the Song which Plato calls an idle thing taken out of some of the ancient Poets of Health Beauty and Riches Aristotle says that the right of Command appertains to the beautiful and when there is a Person whose Beauty comes near the Images of the Gods that then Veneration is likewise due To him who askt him why People ofter and longer frequented the company of handsome Persons That Question said he is not to be askt by any but one that is blind The most and the greateâ—â— Philosophers paid for their schooling and acquired Wisdom by the Favour and Mediatioâ— Beauty Not only in the men that serve me but also in the Beasts I consider them within two fingers breadth of Goodness And yet I fancy that those Features and Moulds of a Face and those Lineaments by which men guess at our internal Complexions and our Fortunes to come is a thing that does not very directly and simply lye under the Chapter of Beauty and Deformity no more than every good odour and serenity of Air promises Health nor all fogg and stink Infection and a time of Pestilence Such as accuse Ladies of contradicting their Beauty by their Manners do not always hit right for in a Face which is none of the best there may lye some air of probity and trust as on the contrary I have seen betwixt two beautiful Eyes menaces of a dangerous and malignant Nature There are some Physiognomies that are favourable so that in a crowd of victorious Enemies you shall presently choose amongst men you never saw before one rather than another to whom to surrender and with whom to intrust your Life and yet not properly upon the Consideration of Beauty A mans look is but a feeble warranty and yet it is something considerable too And if I were to lash them I would most severely scourge the wicked ones who belye and betray the promises that Nature has planted in their Fore-heads I should with great Severity punish Malice in a mild and gentle Aspect It seems as if there were some happy and some unhappy Faces and I believe there is some Art in distinguishing affable from simple Faces severe from rude malicious from pensive scornful from melancholick and such other bordering Qualities There are Beauties which are not only fair but sour and
Profit and Amendment he cannot stand the Liberty of a Friends Advice which has no other Power but to pinch his Ear the remainder of its effect being still in his own Hands Now there is no Condition of Men whatever who stand in so great need of true and free advertisement as they do They support the publick Life and are to satisfie the Opinion of so many Spectators that when men have us'd to conceal from them whatever should divert them from their own way they insensibly have found themselves involv'd in the hatred and detestation of their People sometimes upon so slight Occasions as they might have avoided without any prejudice even of their Pleasures themselves had they been advis'd and set right in time Their Favorites commonly have more regard to themselves than they have to their Master and indeed it stands them upon forasmuch as in truth most Offices of true friendships when apply'd to the Sovereign are under a rude and dangerous hazard so that therein there is great need not only of very great Affection and Freedom but of Courage too To conclude all this Hodg-podg which I scribble here is nothing but a Register of Essays of my own Life which for the internal soundness is exemplary enough to take instruction against the Hair but as to bodily health no man can furnish out more profitable Experience than I who present it pure and no way corrupted and chang'd by Art or Opinion Experience is properly upon its own Dung-hill in the Subject of Physick where Reason wholly gives it place Tyberius said that whoever had liv'd twenty years ought to be responsible to himself for all things that were hurtful or wholsome to him and know how to order himself without Physick And he might have learnt it of Socrates who advising his Disciples to be sollicitous of their Health as the chiefest study added that it was hard if a man of Sense having a care of his Exercises and Diet did not better know than any Physician what was good or ill for him And also Physick does profess always to have Experience for the touch of its Operations And Plato had reason to say that to be a right Physician it would be necessary that he who would take it upon him should first himself have pass'd through all the Diseases he will pretend to cure and thorough all the Accidents and Circumstances whereof he is to judge 'T is but Reason they should get the Pox if they will know how to cure it for my part I should put my self into such hands for the others but guide us like him who paints the Sea-Rocks and Ports upon his Cloth and there makes the Figure of a Ship to sail in all security and put him to 't in earnest he knows not at which end to begin They make such a Description of our Maladies as a Town-Crier does of a lost Horse or Dog such a Colour such a Height such an Ear but bring him to him and he knows him not for all that God grant that Physick may one day give me some good and visible relief namely when I shall cry out in good earnest Tandem efficaci do manus Scientiae The Arts that promise to keep our Bodies and Souls in Health promise a great deal but withall there is none that less keep their Promise And in our times those that make profession of these Arts amongst us less manifest the Effects than any other sort of men One may say of them at the most that they sell Medicinal Drugs but that they are Physicians a man cannot say I have liv'd long enough to be able to give an account of the Custom that has carried me so far And for whoever has a mind to read it as his Taster I give him this Essay wherein he will find some Articles as my Memory shall supply me with them I have no Custom that has not varied according to accidents but I only record those that I have been best acquainted with and that hitherto have had the greatest possession of me My form of Life is the same in Sickness that it is in Health the same Bed the same Houses the same Meat and the same Drink serve me in both Conditions alike I add nothing to them but the moderation of more or less according to my Strength and Appetite My Health is to maintain my wonted state without disturbance I see that sickness puts me off it on one side and if I will be rul'd by the Physicians they will put me off on the other so that by Fortune and by Art I am out of my way I believe nothing more certainly than this that I cannot be offended by the usage of things to which I have been so long accustom'd 'T is for Custom to give a form to a mans Life such as it best pleases she is all in all in that 'T is the Beverage of Circe that varies our Nature as she pleases best How many Nations and but three steps from us think the fear of the serene that so manifestly is hurtful to us a ridiculous fancy and our Water-men and Peasants despise it You make a German sick if you lay him upon a Quilt as you do an Italian if you lay him on a Feather-bed and a French-man without Curtains or Fire A Spanish Stomach cannot hold out to eat as we can nor ours to drink like the Swiss A German made me very merry at Augusta with disputing the inconvenience of our Hearths by the same Arguments which we commonly make use of in decrying their Stoves For to say the truth that smother'd heat and then the scent of that heated matter of which the Fire is compos'd very much offend such as are not us'd to them not me But as to the rest the Heat being always equal constant and universal without flame without smoke and without the wind that comes down our Chimnies they may many ways induce comparison with ours Why do we not imitate the Roman Architecture For they say that anciently Fires were not made in their Houses but on the outside and at the foot of them from whence the heat was convey'd to the whole Fabrick by Pipes contriv'd in the Wall which were drawn twining about the Rooms that were to be warm'd Which I have seen plainly describ'd somewhere in Seneca This Gentleman hearing me commend the Conveniences and Beauties of his City which truly deserves it began to lament me that I was to go away And the first inconvenience he alledg'd to me was the heaviness that the Chimneys elsewhere brought upon me He had heard some one make this Complaint and fixt it upon us being by Custom depriv'd of the means of perceiving it at home All heat that comes from the Fire makes me weak and dull and yet Evenus said that Fire was the best condiment of Life I rather chuse any other way of making my self warm We are afraid to drink our Wines when toward the bottom of the
but generally I give way and accommodate my self as much as any one to necessity Sleeping has taken up a great part of my Life and I yet continue at the Age I now am to sleep eight or nine hours together I wean my self to my advantage from this propension to sloth and am evidently the better for so doing I find the change a little hard indeed but in three days 't is over and see but few that live with less Sleep when need requires and that more constantly exercise themselves nor to whom long Journeys are less troublesome My Body is capable of a firm but not of a violent or sudden Agitation I evade of late all violent exercises and such as make me sweat wherein my Limbs grow weary before they are hot I can stand a whole day together and am never weary of walking But from my Youth I never lov'd to Ride upon Pavements On foot I go up to the Breech in dirt and little Fellows as I am are subject in the Streets to be Elbow'd and Justled for want of Presence and Stature and I have ever lov'd to repose my self whether sitting or lying with my Heels as high or higher than my Seat There is no profession is more pleasant than the military a profession both noble in its execution for Valour is the strongest proudest and most generous of all Vertues and noble in its cause There is no Utility either more Universal or more Just than the protection of the Peace and grandeur of a mans Country The company of so many Noble Young and Active men delights you the ordinary sight of so many Tragick Spectacles the liberty of this Conversation without Art with a Masculine and unceremonious way of living pleases you the variety of a Thousand several Actions the encouraging Harmony of Martial Musick that ravishes and inflames both your Ears and Souls the Honour of this exercise nay even the sufferings and difficulties of War which Plato so little esteems that he makes Women and Children share in it in his Republick are delightful to you You put your selves voluntarily upon particular Exploits and hazards according as you judge of their lustre and importance and see when even life it self is excusably employed Pulchrumque mori succurrit in armis And we conceive it brave to die in Arms. To fear common dangers that concern so great a multitude of men not to dare to do what so many sorts of Souls and a whole people do is for a heart that is low and mean beyond all measure Company encourages so much as Children If others excell you in Knowledge in Gracefulness in Strength or Fortune you have third causes to blame for that but to give place to them in stability of mind you can blame no one for that but your self Death is more Abject more Languishing and Painful in Bed than in Battel and Fevers and Catharrs as Painful and Mortal as a Musquet-shott And whoever has fortified himself valiantly to bear the accidents of common life would not need to raise his courage to be a Souldier Vivere mi Lucilli militare est To live my Lucillus is to make War I do not remember that I ever had the Itch and yet scratching is one of natures sweetest gratifications and nearest at hand but the smart follows too near I use it most in my Ears which are often apt to Itch. I came into the World with all my Senses intire even to perfection My Stomach is commodiously good as also is my Head and my Breath and for the most part uphold themselves so in the height of Fevers I have past the age to which some Nations not without reason have prescrib'd so just a term of Life that they would not suffer men to exceed it and yet I have some intermissions though short and inconstant so clean and sound as are little inferiour to the Health and Indolency of my Youth I do not speak of Vigour and Spriteliness 't is not reason that it should follow me beyond its limits Non hoc amplius est liminis aut aquae Coelestis patiens latus My sides no longer can sustain The hardships of the Wind and Rain My Face and Eyes presently discover me All my alterations begin there and appear worse than they really are My Friends oft pity me before I feel the cause in my self My Looking-glass does not fright me for even in my Youth it has befaln me more than once to have a scurvy complexion and of ill Prognostick without any great consequence insomuch that the Physicians not finding any cause within answerable to that outward alteration attributed it to the mind and some secret passion that tormented me within but they were deceiv'd If my Body would govern it self as well according to my Rule as my Mind does we should move a little more at our ease My mind was then not only free from Trouble but moreover full of Joy and Satisfaction as it commonly is half by Complexion and half by its own Design Nec vitiant artus aegrae contagia mentis I never yet could find That e're my Body suffer'd by my mind I am of the opinion that this temperature of my Soul has oft rais'd my Body from its lapses It is oft deprest and if the other be not brisk and gay 't is at least quiet and at rest I had a Quartan Ague four or five months that had made me look miserably ill my mind was always if not calm yet pleasant if the pain be without me the weakness and langour do not much afflict me I see several corporal faintings that beget a horrour in me but to name which yet I should less fear than a thousand passions and agitations of mind that I see in use I resolve no more to run 't is enough that I crawl along and no more complain of the natural decadency that I feel in my self Quis tumidum guttur miratur in Alpibus than I regret that my duration shall not be as long and entire as that of an Oak I have no reason to complain of my imagination for I have had few thoughts in my Life which have so much as broke my sleep if not those of desire which have awak'd without afflicting me I dream but seldom and then of Chimera's and fantastick things commonly produc'd from pleasant thoughts and rather ridiculous than sad and believe it to be true that dreams are the true Interpreters of our inclinations but there is art requir'd to sort and understand them Res quae in vita usurpant homines cogitant curant vident Quaeque agunt vigilantes agitantque ea sicut in fomno accidunt minus nimirum est 'T is no wonder if what men practice think care for see and do when waking should also run in their Heads and disturb them when they are asleep Plato moreover says that 't is the office of Prudence to draw instructions of Divination of future things from
is the Custom of popular men to call Fidlers and Singing-men to Feasts for want of good Discourse and pleasant talk with which men of Understanding know how to entertain one another Varro requires all this in great Entertainments Persons of graceful Presence and agreeable Conversation that are neither silent nor bablers Neatness and Delicacy both of Meat and Place and fair Weather A good Treat is neither slightly artificial nor a little voluptuous neither the greatest Captains nor the greatest Philosophers have disdain'd either the Use or Science of eating well My Imagination has deliver'd three of them to the Custody of my Memory which Fortune rendred sovereignly sweet to me upon several occasions in my most flourishing Age. My present state excludes me For every one according to the good temper of Body and Mind wherein he then finds himself does from thence make out to his own use a particular grace and liking but I who but crawl upon the Earth hate this inhumane Wisdom that will have us despise and hate all culture of the Body I look upon it as an equal Injustice to loath natural Pleasures as to be too much in love with them Xerxes was a Fop who environ'd with all humane Delights propos'd a reward to him that could find him out others but he is not much less so who cuts off any of those Pleasures that Nature has provided for him A man should neither pursue nor flie but receive them I receive them I confess a little too affectionately and kindly and easily suffer my self to follow my natural Propension We have nothing to do to exaggerate their inanity they themselves will make us sufficiently sensible of it Thanks be to our sick Minds that abate our Joys and put them out of taste with them as with themselves They entertain both themselves and all they receive one while better and another worse according to their insatiable vagabond and versatile Essence Sincerum est nisi vas quodcunque infundis acescit Unless the Vessel you would use be sweet 'T will sour whate're you shall put into it I who boast that I so curiously and particularly imbrace the conveniences of Life do find when I most nearly consider them but very little more than Wind. But what We are all Wind throughout and moreover the Wind it self loves to bluster and shift from corner to corner more discreetly than we and contents it self with its proper Offices without desiring stability and solidity Qualities that nothing belong to it The pure Pleasures as well as the pure Displeasures of the Imagination say some are the greatest as was express'd by the balance of Critolaus 'T is no wonder It makes them to its own liking and cuts them out of the whole Cloth Of which I every day see notable Examples and peradventure to be desir'd But I who am of a mixt and heavy Condition cannot snap so soon at this one simple Object but that I negligently suffer my self to be carried away with the present Pleasures of the general humane Law Intellectually sensible and sensibly intellectual The Cyrenick Philosophers will have it that as corporal Pains so corporal Pleasures are more powerful both as double and as more just There are some as Aristotle says who out of a savage kind of Stupidity pretend to disgust them and I know others who out of Ambition do the same Why do they not moreover forswear breathing Why do they not live of their own and refuse Light because it shines gratis and costs them neither pains nor invention Let Mars Pallas or Mercury afford them their light by which to see instead of Venus Ceres and Bacchus Will they not seek the Quadrature of the Circle even when mounted upon their Wives I hate that we should be injoyn'd to have our minds in the Clouds when our bodies are at Table I will have the mind there nail'd not that it should wallow there but I am willing it should apply it self to that place to sit but not to lye down there Aristippus maintain'd nothing but the Body as if we had no Soul Zeno stickled only for the Soul as if we had no Body Both of them faultily Pythagoras say they follow'd a Philosophy that was all Contemplation Socrates one that was all Manners and Action Plato found out a mean betwixt both but they only say so for Discourse sake for the true mean is found in Socrates and Plato is more Socratick than Pythagorick and it becomes him better When I dance I dance when I sleep I sleep Nay and when I walk alone in a beautifull Orchard if my Thoughts are some part of the time taken up with strange Occurrences I some part of the time call them back again to my walk to the Orchard to the sweetness of the Solitude and to my self Nature has with a Motherly tenderness observ'd this that the actions she has injoyn'd us for our necessity should be also pleasant to us and invites us to them not only by Reason but also by Appetite and 't is injustice to infringe her Laws When I see both Caesar and Alexander in the thickest of their greatest business so fully injoy humane and corporal Pleasures I do not say that they slacken'd their Souls but wound them up higher by Vigour of Courage subjecting these violent Imployments and laborious Thoughts to the ordinary usance of Life Wise 〈◊〉 they believ'd that the last was their ordinary Imployment the first their extraordinary Vocation We are great fools He has past over his Life in ease say we I have done nothing yet that is new What have you not liv'd till now 'T is not only the fundamental but the most illustrious of all your Occupations Had I been put to the management of great Affairs I should have made it seen what I could do Have you known how to meditate and mannage your Life you have perform'd the greatest work of all For a man to shew and set out himself Nature has no need of Fortune she equally shews her self in all degrees and behind a Curtain as well as without one Have you known how to compose your Manners you have done a great deal more than he who has compos'd Books Have you known how to take repose you have done more than he who has taken Cities and Empires The glorious Master-piece of man is to know how to live to purpose all other things to reign to lay up treasure and to build are at the most but little Appendixes and little Props I take a delight to see a General of an Army at the foot of a Breach he intends presently to Assault give himself up intire and free at dinner to talk and be merry with his Friends And Brutus when Heaven and Earth were conspir'd against him and the Roman Liberty to steal some hour of the Night from his Rounds to read and abridge Polybius in all security 〈◊〉 is for little Souls that truckle under the weight of Affairs not to know how
should be equally the Office of Fortitude to fight against Pain and against the immoderate and charming blandishments of Pleasure They are two Fountains from which whoever draws when and as much as he needs whether City Man or Beast is very happy The first is to be taken physically and upon necessity more scarcely the other for thirst but not to drunkenness Pain Pleasure Love and Hatred are the first things that a Child is sensible of if when his Reason comes to him he apply himself to it that is Virtue I have a peculiar method of my own I squander away my time when it is ill and uneasie but when 't is good I will not squander it away I run it over again and stick to 't a man must run over the ill and insist upon the good This ordinary Phrase of past-time and passing away the time represents the usance of those wise sort of People who think they cannot have a better account of their Lives than to let them run out and slide away to pass them over and to baulk them and as much as they can to take no notice of them and to shun them as a thing of troublesome and contemptible Quality but I know it to be another kind of thing and find it both valuable and commodious even in its latest decay wherein I now injoy it and Nature has deliver'd it into our hands in such and so favourable Circumstances that we commonly complain of our selves if it be troublesome to us or slide unprofitably away Stulti Vita ingrata est trepida est tota in futurum fertur The Life of a Fool is uneasie timorous and wholly bent upon the future Nevertheless I compose my self to lose mine without regret but withall as a thing that is loseable by its Condition not that it troubles or importunes me Neither does it properly well become any not to be displeas'd when they dye excepting such as are pleas'd to live There is good husbandry in enjoying it I enjoy it double to what others do for the measure in Fruition depends more or less upon our application to it Now especially that I perceive mine to be so short in time I will extend it in weight I will stop the suddenness of its flight by the suddenness of my seising upon it and by the vigour of using it recompence the speed of its running away By how much the possession of living is more short I must make it so much deeper and more full Others are sensible of Contentment and of Prosperity I feel it too as well as they but not only as it slides and passes by and also a man ought to study taste and ruminate upon it to render condign thanks to him that grants it to us They enjoy the other Pleasures as they do that of sleep without knowing it to the end that even sleep it self should not so stupidly escape from me I have formerly caus'd my self to be disturb'd in my sleep to the end that I might the better and more sensibly relish and taste it I consult with my self of a contentment I do not skin but sound it and bend my Reason now grown perverse and ill humour'd to entertain it Do I find my self in any calm composedness is there any Pleasure that tickles me I do not suffer it to dally with my Senses only I associate my Soul to it too not there to engage it self but therein to take delight not there to lose it self but to be present there and employ it on its part to view it self in this prosperous Estate to weigh esteem and amplifie the good hap It reckons how much it stands indebted to Almighty God that it is in repose of Conscience and other intestine Passions to have the Body in a natural disposedness orderly and competently enjoying the soft and flattering functions by which he of his bounty is pleas'd to recompence the sufferings wherewith his Justice at his good Pleasure does scourge and chastise us How great a benefit is it to man to have his Soul so seated that which way soever she turns her Eye the Heaven is calm and serene about her No Desire no Fear or Doubt that troubles the Air nor any Difficulty past present or to come that his Imagination may not pass over without Offence This Consideration takes great lustre from the comparison of different Conditions and therefore it is that I propose to my self in a thousand faces those whom Fortune or their own Error torment and carry away and moreover those who more like to me so negligently and incuriously receive their good Fortune They are men who pass away their time indeed they run over the present and that which they possess to give themselves up to hope and for vain Shadows and Images which fancy puts into their Heads Morte obita quales fama est volitare figuras Aut quae sopitos deludunt somnia sensus Such shapes they say that dead mens Spirits have Or those in Dreams our drousie Sense deceive which hasten and prolong their flight according as they are pursu'd The fruit and end of their pursuit is to pursue as Alexander said that the end of his labour was to labour Nil actum credens cum quid superesset agendum Thinking nought done if ought was left to do For my part then I love Life and cultivate it such as it hath pleas'd God to bestow it upon us I do not desire it should be without the necessity of eating and drinking and I should think to offend no less excusably to wish it had been double Sapiens divitiarum naturalium quaesitor acerrimus A wise man is an avaricious gaper after natural riches Nor that we should support our selves by putting only a little of that Drug into our Mouths by which Epimenides took away his Appetite and kept himself alive Nor that a man should stupidly beget Children with his Fingers or heels but rather with reverence I speak it that we might voluptuously beget them with our Fingers and heels Nor that the Body should be without desire and void of delight These are ungrateful and wicked complaints I accept kindly and with acknowledgment what Nature has done for me am well pleas'd with it and proud of it A man does wrong to the Great and Potent Giver of all things to refuse disannull or disfigure his Gift He has made every thing well Omnia quae secundum Naturam sunt aestimatione digna sunt All things that are according to Nature are worthy of esteem Of Philosophical Opinions I more willingly embrace those that are most solid that is to say the most humane and most our own my Discourse is suitably to my manners low and humble I then bring forth a Child to my own liking when it puts it self upon its Ergo's to prove that 't is a barbarous alliance to marry the Divine with the Earthly the Reasonable with the Vnreasonable the Severe with the Indulgent and
the Honest with the Dishonest That Pleasure is a brutish quality unworthy to be tasted by a wise man That the sole Pleasure that he extracts from the enjoyment of a fair young Wife is a pleasure of his Conscience to perform an action according to order as to put on his Boots for a profitable Journey Oh that his followers had no more right nor nerves nor juyce in getting their Wives Maiden-heads than in his Lessons 'T is not what Socrates says who is both his Master and ours He values as he ought Bodily pleasure but he preferrs that of the Soul as having more force constancy facility variety and dignity This according to him goes by no means alone he is not so fantastick but only it goes first Temperance in him is the Moderatrix not the Adversary of his Pleasures Nature is a gentle guide but not more sweet and gentle than prudent and just Intrandum est in rerum naturam penitus quid ea postulet per videndum A man must search into the Nature of things and examine what she requires I hunt after her foot throughout but we have confounded it with artificial Truces And that Academick and Peripatetick good which is to live according to it becomes by this means hard to limit and explain And that of the Stoicks Cousin-German to it which is to consent to Nature Is it not an errour to esteem any Actions less worthy because they are Necessary And yet they cannot beat it out of my Head that it is not a convenient marriage of Pleasure with Necessity to which says an Ancient the Gods do always consent To what end do we dismember by Divorce a building united by so mutual and brotherly a Correspondence Let us on the contrary repair and corroborate it by mutual Offices let the Mind rouse and quiken the heaviness of the Body and the Body stop and fix the levity of the Soul Qui velut summum bonum laudat Animae Naturam tanquam malum Naturam Carnis accusat profecto Animam carnaliter appetit Carnem carnaliter fugit quoniam id Vanitate sentit humana non veritale Divina Who commends the Nature of the Soul as the supream good and accuses the Nature of the Flesh as evil does certainly both carnally affect the Soul and carnally flies the flesh because he is so possess'd through humane vanity and not by Divine truth In this Present that God has made us there is nothing unworthy our care we stand accountable even to an hair And 't is no slight Commission to man to conduct man according to his condition 'T is express plain and the principal injunction of all and the Creator has seriously and strictly enjoyn'd it Authority has alone the power to work upon common Understandings and is of more weight in a Foreign Language and therefore let us again charge it in this place Stultitia proprium quis non dixerit ignave contumaciter facere quae facienda sunt alio corpus impellere alio animum distrahique inter diversissimos motus Who will not say that it is the property of folly slothfully and contumaciously to perform what is to be done and to bend the Body one way and the Mind another and to be distracted betwixt most different motions Which to make apparent makes any one another day tell you what whimsies and imaginations he put into his own pate and upon the account of which he diverted his thoughts from a good meal and complains of the time he spends in eating you will find there is nothing so insipid in all the Dishes at your Table as this wise meditation of his for the most part we had better sleep than wake to the purpose we do and that his Discourses and Notions are not worth the worst Mess there Though they were the Raptures of Archimedes himself what were they worth I do not here speak of nor mix with the rabble of us ordinary men and the vanity of the thoughts and desires that divert us those venerable Souls elevated by the ardour of Devotion and Religion to a constant and conscientious meditation of Divine things who by a lively endeavour and vehement hope prepossessing the use of the eternal nourishment the final aim and last step of Christian desires the sole constant and incorruptible pleasure disdain to apply themselves to our necessitous fluid and ambiguous conveniences and easily resign to the Body the care and use of sensual and temperate feeding 'T is a priviledg'd study I have ever amongst us observ'd supercelestial opinions and subterranean manners to be of singular accord Aesop that great man saw his Master piss as he walk'd What said he must we then dung as we run Let us manage our time as well as we can there will yet remain a great deal that will be idle and ill employ'd As if the Mind had not other hours enow wherein to do its business without disassociating it self from the Body in that little space it needs for its necessity They will put themselves out of themselves and escape from being men 'T is folly instead of transforming themselves into Angels they transform themselves into Beasts and instead of elevating lay themselves lower These transcendent Humours affright me like high and inaccessible Cliffs and Precipices And nothing is hard for me to digest in the Life of Socrates but his Ecstasies and communication with Devils Nothing so Humane in Plato as that for which they say he was call'd Divine And of our Sciences those seem to be the most terrestrial and low that are highest mounted And I find nothing so humble and mortal in the Life of Alexander as his fancies about immortalization Philotus pleasantly quipt him in his answer He congratulated him by Letter concerning the Oracle of Jupiter Hammon who had plac'd him amongst the Gods Vpon thy account I am glad of it said he but the men are to be lamented who are to live with a man and to obey him who exceeds and is not contented with the measure of a man Diis te minorem quod geris imperas Because thou carriest thy self lower than the Gods thou dost rule and command The queint Inscription wherewith the Athenians honour'd the entry of Pompey into their City is conformable to my sense D'autant es tu Dieu comme Tu te recognois homme By so much thou a God appear'st to be By how much thou a man confessest thee 'T is an absolute and as it were a Divine Perfection for a man to know how loyally to enjoy his Being We seek other conditions by reason we do not understand the use of our own and go out of our selves because we know not how there to reside 'T is to much purpose to go upon stilts for when upon stilts we must yet walk upon our Legs And when seated upon the most elevated Throne in the World we are but seated upon our Breech The fairest Lives in my opinion are those