from Heaven yea from God himself and very highly doth Seneca extoll it as a part of the Divine Spirit infused into Man For this is that most excellent faculty of understanding and judging vvhich is no less the perfection of the Soul than the Soul it self is the perfection of the Man The Greeks call it the Mind and so the Latines or else the Mind of the Soul For that you be not mistaken the vvhole Soul is not right Reason but that only therein vvhich is simple Uniform unmixed sever'd from all Lees and Dreggs and in a vvord that vvhich is in it of sublime and coelestial For the Soul it self howsoever it is lamentably corrupted and infected vvith the stain of the Body and the contagion of the Senses doth yet invvardly retain some certain Footsteps of its Original and there are in it very clearly discernible some sparkling remainders of that first and purer fire Hence are those stings of Conscience even in the vvorst and most profligate Persons Hence are those invvard scourges and gnawings and hence is that approbation of a better Life vvhich is frequently extorted from them though not vvithout a reluctancy in themselves For that sound and holyer part vvithin us may possibly for a time be suppressed oppressed it cannot And that burning Flame may be cover'd but cannot be extinguished For those little Fires do alwayes shine forth and sparkle out to enlighten us amongst these shades cleanse us from these stains guide us in our vvandrings and to shew us the vvay to Constancy and Virtue As the Heliotrope and some other Flowers do by a natural instinct bend towards the Sun So doth Reason turn it self to God and the Original of its self Firm and immoveable in vvhat is good one and the same in its Censures ever desiring or flying one and the same thing the very source and Fountain of right Councel and sound Judgement To obey this is no less than to command and to be subject here is to svvay the Scepter of the Universe Who ever hearkens unto this hath already subjugated the rebellious desires and motions of the Mind And he shall never be wildred in the Labyrinths of this Life vvho remits himself to the guideance of this Theseian Clevv God himself by this his Image comes unto us nay vvhich is yet more into us But that baser and unsounder part I mean Opinion it owes its Original to the Body that is to say to Earth and therefore savours nothing besides it For the Body howsoever it is immoveable and senseless of it self yet it derives both Life and Motion from the Soul and on the other side presents to the Soul the Images of things through the Windowes of the senses Thus there is a kind of Communion and Society Cemented betwixt the Soul and the Body but such a communion as if vve attend the Event proves unfortunate to the Soul For through this it is that the Soul by almost insensible degrees is led from the Nobler place of its residence becomes addicted to and is mingled vvith the Senses and from this impure mixture is the birth of Opinion vvhich is no other than a vain shaddow and resemblance of Reason The true seat of it is Sense the Parent Earth and therefore abject and base as it is it advances not it self it aspires not nor so much as regards any thing that is lofty and AEtherial It is ever vain uncertain deceitfull ill-advising and as perversly judging and that vvhich it chiefly aimes at is at once to deprive the Soul of Constancy and Truth It languishes for this thing to day and on the Morrow despises it this it approves and this it condemnes nothing vvith judgement but gratifying the Body and indulging the Senses in every thing As the Eye makes but a false measure of those things vvhich it beholds through some Cloud or in the Water So doth the Mind but perversly judge of vvhat it beholds through the misty Mediums of Opinion This if you consider vvell is to Man the Mother of his Evils and this is the Author of that confused and perturbed Life vvithin us That cares do disquiet us it is from hence that the Passions do distract us it is from hence and if Vices do Reign over us it is also from hence And therefore as those vvho are resolv'd to abolish Tyranny in any City do first of all demolish the Castle So if vve are Serious in the prosecution of a good Mind vve must subvert this Citadel of Opinions For vve shall fluctuate vvith them for ever Anxious Plaintfull Discompos'd and never as vve ought assigning vvhat is equall either to God or Man As a void and empty Ship is tossed in the Sea vvith every wind So vvill that Vagrant Mind of ours be vvhich the vveight and as it vvere the ballast of Reason hath not established CHAP. VI. The praise of Constancy and a serious exhortation to pursue it LEvity therefore Lipsius as you see is the Comrade of Opinion and the property of it is alvvayes to change and to repent But the associate of Reason is Constancy to the putting on of vvhich I do very seriously exhort you To vvhat purpose is it to have recourse unto things vain and external This is that only Helena vvhich can present you vvith that true and rich Nepenthe in vvhich you may drown the memory of all your Cares and Griefs which if once you have tasted and taken down proof against every chance in the same equal tenour and not vvavering after the manner of a ballance you may challenge to your self that great and God-like property of Immoveable Have you not observed in the Scutcheons and Impresses of some of the Princes of this Age that high and envy'd Motto NEITHER BY HOPE NOR FEAR It shall be yours vvho being truly a King and truly free shall be a subject unto God alone exempt from the bondage both of Affections and Fortune As there are some certain Rivers which are said to pass through the middle of Seas and yet preserve themselves intire so you shall travel through surrounding tumults in such a manner as not to contract any saltness from this Sea of sorrowes Do you fall Constancy will lift you up Do you stagger It vvill support you Shall you hasten to some Pond or Halter It vvill solace and reduce you from the very Portalls of Death Do you only deliver and raise up your self Steere the course of your Ship unto this Haven where Peace and Security dwell In vvhich there is a Refuge and a Sanctuary from troubles and perplexities Whereunto assuredly if you are once arriv'd should your Country not only totter but fall into ruines your self should stand unshaken When Storms and Tempests and Thunder-bolts fall about you yet then you shall cry out vvith as true as loud a Voice In midst of all these VVaves I stand Secure as if upon the Land CHAP. VII VVhat it is and how manifold that opposes Constancy they are external
rather to endeavour a change of that than of the place and to strive not so much to be else where as to be another You long now to see the fruitfull Austria the Loyal and Stout Vienna that King of Rivers the Danubius and those other rare and strange things vvhich Men so delightfully listen to the Relations of But hovv much better were it for you if you had the same Ardour and eagerness after Wisdome If you vvould foot it in those fertil Fields if you would search out the springs of Humane perturbations in fine if you vvould erect such Bulvvarks and Forts as might render you impregnable to all the storms and assaults of such desires as are Illegitimate For these are the grand Remedies for your Disease and every thing besides are but as Lint and Lavatory Your departure vvill nothing help you It vvill be small advantage to you that you have Escap'd to many Graecian Cities and Through squadrons of arm'd Ships get safe to Land You vvill find an Enemy vvithin your self and Claying his hand on my brest in that so private an apartment What matter is it how peaceable those places are to which you shall arrive So long as you carry a War along vvith you Or how quiet When troubles not only surround you but are got vvithin you For this disagreeing Mind of ours vvill ever be piquering vvith it self Desiring and flying hoping and desparing And as those flying Cowards do most of all expose themselves to danger that discover their unarmed Backs to their Enemies So those Errants and Fresh-vvater Souldiers also do vvho as yet did never maintain a fight vvith their Affections but alwayes fled before them But thou Young Man if thou vvilt hearken unto me shalt stand and fortifie thy self against this Enemie of Grief For above all things it is constancy you stand in need off and there are some vvho have commenced Conquerours by fighting but not a single Person by flying CHAP. IV. The Definitions of Constancy Patience Right Reason and Opinion The difference betwixt Obstinacy and Constancy and betwixt Patience and Stupidity SOmewhat rais'd vvith this Discourse of Langius there is much of Noble and Gallant said I in these Advices of yours And now am I endeavouring to raise up my self and stand But to as little purpose as persons that attempt the same thing in their sleeps For not to dissemble Langius I tumble back into my former Seat and as vvell publick as private Cares stick fast in my perplexed Mind Drive from me if it is possible these Vultures vvhich are continually pecking and take from me these Ligatures of Anxiety vvith vvhich I feel my self bound unto this Caucasus I shall doubtless take them away reply'd he and as another Hercules set at liberty this Prometheus Do you only attend and consider I did before invite you to Constancy Lipsius and it is in that I have placed the Hope and Sanctuary of all your Safety This therefore in the first place is to be understood by us Now by Constancy I here understand AN UPRIGHT UNMOVED STRENGTH OF THE MIND NEITHER ELEVATED NOR DEPRESS'D BY EXTERNAL OR ACCIDENTAL OCCURRENCES I said a STRENGTH and I thereby understand such a firmness as is begot in the Mind not by Opinion but by Judgement and right Reason For above all things I would exclude from hence Pervicaciousness or vvhether I may better call it Pertinaciousness vvhich it self is the strength of an Obedient Mind but such only as is engender'd by the vvind of Pride and vain Glory and is but in one part of it only For those Pervicacious Persons though they are not swollen as they are easily to be depress'd Yet a light matter doth lift them up Not unlike unto a bladder vvhich being fill'd vvith vvind vvill not sink vvithout difficulty but appears aloft and bounds upon the Water of its own accord Such is the flatulent hardness of these Men vvhich as I said arises from Pride and too high an estimate of self and by consequence from Opinion But the true Mother of Constancy is Patience and lowliness of the Mind vvhich I define A VOLUNTARY AND COMPLAINTLESSE ENDURANCE OF ALL THOSE THINGS WHATSOEVER THEY BE THAT FALL OUT TO OR FALL UPON A MAN FROM ELSEWHERE Which being taken up upon the actount of right Reason is that only Root from vvhence the height of this excellent Oak-like strength doth vvear it self For here also it is requisite that you should be heedfull lest Opinion should impose upon you vvhich frequently in the room of Patience doth subrogate a kind of abject and stupid temper of the Mind a very Vice and vvhich arises from too low an estimate of our selves As for Virtue she ever marches in the middle path and is cautiously heedfull lest there should be any thing of Excess or Defect in any of her Actions For still she directs her self by the Ballance of right Reason and hath that alone for the rule and square of her Test. Now this right Reason is nothing else but A TRUE APPREHENSION AND JUDGEMENT OF HUMANE AND DIVINE MATTERS AS FARR AS THEY APPERTAIN TO US Contrary hereunto is Opinion vvhich is A FUTILE AND FALLACIOUS JUDGEMENT CONCERNING THE SAME THINGS CHAP. V. The Originals of Reason and Opinion The Power and Effects of each That leads to Constancy this to Levity BUt forasmuch as from this double spring I mean of Reason and Opinion doth arise not only the strength or vveakness of the Mind But also every of those things for vvhich vve are accounted praise-worthy or reproveable amongst Men I suppose I shall not do amiss if I go about a little more copiously to Discourse of the Original and Nature of them both For as Wools must have a previous tincture and preparation by some other juices before they are capable of receiving as they should that last and more excellent colour they are intended for After the same manner Lipsius your Mind is to be prepared by a preceding Discourse before I shall be able as I vvould to dye it in the last purple of Constancy There are therefore as you vvell know two parts in Man Soul and Body the one more Noble as resembling Spirit and Office the other is more Base as it respects the earth These two are joyn'd together yet vvith a kind of disagreeing Concord nor do they easily accord vvith one another especially in those matters wherein Soveraignty or subserviency is concern'd For both have a desire to sway but that especially that ought not Earth strives to advance it self above its own fire and Clodds are ambitious to get above the Clouds From hence are those broils and troubles in a Man and as it vvere a continual fight betwixt two parties that are alvvayes Skirmishing vvith each other The chief Leaders and as it vvere Generalls unto these are Reason and Opinion The one is for the Soul and Warres therein the other is for the Body and in the Body it fights Reason derives its Pedigree
God vvills it otherwise vvho you ought to know sees more clearly into these matters and punishes for other ends The heats of passion and a certain desire of Revenge transport us from all vvhich God is most remotely distant and intends the vvarning and correction of others For he best knowes to vvhom and vvhen these things may be useful The choice of times is of great moment and for vvant of a due and seasonable administration the safest medicines do oftentimes prove fatal to us He took away Caligula in the first setting out of his Tyranny He suffered Nero to run on longer and Tiberius beyond either and this no doubt for the good of those very Men vvho then also complain'd Our vicious and uncorrected manners do often stand in need of a lasting and continued scourge though vve vvould have it straight remov'd and thrown into the Fire This is one cause of the forbearance of God vvhich respect us the other respects himself To vvhom it seems natural to proceed on to his Revenge vvith a slow pace and to recompence the delay of his punishment vvith the vveight of it Synecius said vvell the Divine inquisition moves on slowly and by degrees And so did the Ancients vvho from this property of his feign'd God to have feet of Wool So that although you are passionately hasty of Revenge you cannot yet accuse this delay since it is so only a respite of punishment that it may be also an encrease Tell me vvere you present at a Tragedy vvould you stomach it that the Atreus there or the Thyestes in the first or second act should in a glorious garbe and vvith a stately tread pass through the Scenes That they should rule there threaten and command all I suppose you would not for you know that felicity is but short-liv'd And expect that all this grandeur should finish in a fatal Catastrophe In this Play and Fable of the World vvhy are you more offended vvith God than you vvould be vvith any Poet That wicked Man flourishes and that Tyrant lives happy Be it so but think vvithall that this is but the first Act And before possess your self inwardly vvith this that tears and forrows press on hard to overtake those joyes This Scene shall shortly flow vvith blood and then those robes of Gold and Purple shall be rowled up and down and trampled in it For that great Master of ours is a good Poet and vvill not rashly exceed the Lawes of his Tragedy Do vve not vvillingly bear with Discords in Musick for some time because vve know that the last closures vvill end in comfort Do so here But you vvill say those miserable Creatures that have suffered under this Tyranny do not alwayes see the punishment What wonder is it For the Play is oftentimes somewhat long and they are not able to sit it out in this Theatre But others see it and fear because they see that though in this severe Court of Judicatory some Men are reprieved yet they are not pardoned And though the day of execution is prolonged yet it is not forgot Wherefore Lipsius remember this that vvicked Men are sometimes forborne but never acquited Nor is there any Man that entertains a crime into his brest but vvho also hath a Nemesis at his back for that Goddess is in pursuit of him and as I may say vvith Euripides VVith silent unsuspected pace She doth the guilty Sinner trace And though he strive with utmost hast To scape she seiseth him at last CHAP. XIV That there are divers sorts of punishments some occult and internal which accompany the crime it self and which the wicked never escape That such are more grievous than any external ones WHich notwithstanding that you may more clearly apprehend and that I may once lead you into the height of this cause You must know that Divine punishments are threefold Internal Posthumous and External Those I call Internal vvhich are inflicted on the Soul vvhile it is yet in the Body such are Anxiety Penitence Fears and a thousand pangs and stings of Conscience Those are Posthumous vvhich are inflicted upon the same Soul but then vvhen it is freed and separate from the Body Such are those torments which even the Ancients most of them vvere of opinion did await the vvicked after Death The third sort are such as touch upon the Body or the things that belong to it as Poverty Banishment Pain Diseases Death All vvhich do sometimes by the just Judgment of God concurr against the Wicked but the two former alwayes To speak of internal punishments vvhere shall we find the Man so profusely and audaciously wicked that hath not sensibly felt in his Soul some of these sharp scourges and stripes either in the Commission of his crimes or at least after he hath acted them So true is that vvhich Plato said of old that punishment treads upon the heels of sin or as Hesiod more properly it is coeval and twinns with it The punishment of evil is not only ally'd to but is bred vvithin that evil nor is there any thing in this Life that can pretend to calmness and security besides innocence alone As the Roman custome did enforce the Malefactour to bear that Cross which vvas streight to bear him So hath God impos'd upon all wicked Men this Cross of Conscience on vvhich they shall begin to suffer before their further and vvorse sufferings do begin Do you suppose that only to be punishment which we can look upon and which this Body doth sensibly undergo No. All those external things do but lightly and for no long time touch upon us they are the internal that more exquisitely torment us As we judge them to be more desperately sick who languish away under an inward waste than those that are seised vvith some visible inflammation or preternatural hearts though these last are more apparent So are vvicked Men under a more grievous punishment vvho vvith so low and indiscernible procedures are lead on to their eternal Death It used to be the cruel command of Caligula so strike as that he may feel he dyes the same befalls these Men vvhom their Conscience as an Executioner doth daily torture and even kill by these slow degrees of lesser and repeated stripes Nor let the splendour or the inlarged power and vvealth of those Men impose upon you Since they are no more happy and fortunate for these than they are healthful whose Gout or Feaver rests it self upon a purple Couch Do you see a beggarly Fellow represent in some Play the person of a Prince all Pompous and brave You behold him yet vvithout envy for you know how under those golden Robes his Sores and Filth and Poverty lye hid Think the same of all those great and proud Tyrants In whose Minds if they lay open to us saith Tacitus we might behold gashes and wounds For as Bodies are torn with stripes so are the Souls of Men miserably dilacerated vvith blood lust and
to manifest not to remove the disease to make a discovery of this Internal heat but not at all to asswage it The wise Roman speaks excellently vvell 'T is the property of the sick not to endure any thing long and to make use of change it self instead of a Remedy Hence are those straggling peregrinations and those wandring Voyages upon the Shores undertaken Now by Land and anon by Sea vvith a levity that is ever disgusted vvith vvhatsoever is present You do therefore rather fly than escape troubles after the manner of that Hind in Virgil VVhich while unwary she at distance feeds Among the Craetan woods and nothing beeds Some Shepherds arrow strikes away she hyes And through Dictaean woods and groves she flies But all in vain for as the same Poet addes the fatall reed Sticks in her side for all her speed 'T is thus with you who being invvardly smitten vvith this dart of Passion do not by travell shake it out but rather carry it elsewhere He that ha's broke an Arm or Leg does not use to call for a Horse or Coach but for a Chirurgion What kind of Vanitie then is that of yours that causes you to seek the Cure of an inward vvound by motion and gadding up and down For certainly it is the mind vvhich is sick and all this outward vveakness despair and langour arises from this one Fountain that it languishes and is cast down That Princely and Diviner part hath cast away the Scepter and hath humbled it self to that Degree of baseness as to become a voluntary slave to its own Vassailes Tell me now in this Case vvhat advantage is to be hop'd for from Place or Motion Unless possibly there is any such Region vvhich can temper our Fears or bridle our hopes or make us discharge our selves again of that filthy matter of Vices vvhich we have so liberally taken down But there is alass no such no not in the Fortunate Islands themselves or if there be be so kind as to shew us it and vve vvill all embody and forthvvith march thither You vvill say that very Motion and change of place it self hath that force and that those daily sights that variety of Customes men and places vvhich vve meet vvith in travell doth recreate and rouse afresh the dejected Mind You are deceiv'd Lipsius for to speak seriously and as the matter doth require I do not so far forth depress travail as to grant it no kind of povver over Man and his Affections Yes let it be yielded that it hath but hitherto only that it may possibly remove some lighter taedium or as it vvere loathings of the Mind but as for the Diseases of it they have lodg'd themselves so deep therein as to mock the Virtues of any external Medicines Musick Wine Sleep have frequently cur'd those first and lesser Motions of Anger Grief or Love But never the Disease vvhen once it hath been fix'd and hath fastned its Roots deep The case is the same here Travail vvill possibly heal some lighter languors but it can never cure the true ones For those First Motions vvhich do arise from the Body do after a sort still remain in the Body or at most if I may say so in the superficies of the Mind and therefore it is no marvail if some lesser spunge be able to vvipe them out But it is not so vvith those inveterate Affections vvhich have their Seat yea throne in the very Soul of the Mind When therefore you have gone far and spent much time in travail vvhen you have circled both Sea and Land Yet no Seas vvill suffice to vvash them out nor any Earth to overvvhelme them They vvill follovv you and vvhether on Foot or on Horse-back that I may use the Phrase of the Poet these black cares vvill sit behind you When Socrates vvas ask'd by one vvhat might be the Reason that he had no better accomplish'd himself by travail he answer'd him pertinently because said he you did not travail from your self Somewhat like unto this I shall now say Even vvâ—ithersoever you shall betake your self you vvill have in your company a corrupted and a corrupting Mind none of the most desireable associates I wish it an associate only but I fear it may prove a leader For your Affections vvill not so much follow you as they vvill dragg you after them CHAP. III. That the true Diseases of the Mind are not removed by travail but are thereby the more exasperated That it is the Mind which is sick a remedy for which is to be sought for from VVisdom and Constancy YOu vvill say then doth not travail call us away from those truer evils vvill not the prospect of Fields Rivers and Mountains place us beyond the sense of our Grief They may possibly call you off and place you beyond but neither for any time not vvith any firmness As the eye is not long delighted with a picture how excellent soever So all that varietic of Men and places may affect us vvith the Novelty but it vvill not last long This is indeed a kind of vvandring from Evils but not the flight of them Nor is it in the power of travail to break all it can do is to lengthen this Chain of our Griefs What advantage is it to me for a vvhile to behold the Light and then forthvvith to pass into some comfortless Dungeon Such is the case and verily the vvhole Body of these outward pleasures do lie in ambush for the Soul and hurt us the more securely vvhile they pretend to assist us As the vveaker sort of Medicines do rather exasperate than draw forth the peccant humour So this vain complacencie doth encrease and svvell the Tide of these desires in us For the Mind doth not long vvander from it self but by and by how unvvilling soever is compell'd to return home unto its old familiaritie vvith Evils Those very Cities and Mountains vvhich you go to see vvill reduce to your thoughts the Memory of your Country And in the midst of all your delights you vvill either see or hear of something vvhich vvill unclose afresh the vvounds of your Griefes Or if possibly you may rest avvhile it vvill prove but like to one of those shorter slumbers that leave the avvaked party in the same or a greater Feaver For there are a sort of desires which being interrupted do increase the more And are sensibly the stronger for having had Vacations Away then Lipsius vvith these vain yea dangerous experiments more like to poysons than remedies And betake your self to those vvhich how severe soever are yet the true ones Are you about to change your Soile and Climb O rather let it be your Mind vvhich you have unhappily withdrawn from the Obedience of Right Reason for no other purpose than to make it a Slave to your Affections The unsound temper of that is the Root of this despair and thence are your languors because that is corrupted It behoves you then
vve do bevvaile our ovvn Miseries truly and unfeignedly vvhile vve lament those that are publick only to be talk'd of or because it is a custom Excellently Pindar Our own misfortunes when they light they wound us very near But let another feel the spite Our hearts are quickly clear Wherefore at the last Lipsius dravv aside this Scenick Tapestry fold up this Veile of the Stage and vvithout Simulation shevv us your self in the Genuine Countenance of your ovvn Grief CHAP. X. A Complaint of Langius his so liberall Reproof That it is the part of a Philosopher Endeavours of refuting what was before said Our Obligation and Love to our Country THis first Skirmish seem'd to me somevvhat sharp and therefore interposing vvhat kind of Liberty said I or rather vvhat sharpness of speech is this You are so smart that I may vvell call unto you vvith Euripides Adde not affliction to a Soul distrest I am already but too much opprest Langius smiling and what said he do you then expect at my hands Wafers or Muscadell It is not long since you call'd for the sharpest Methods of Chirurgery And rightly for you hear a Philosopher Lipsius and not a Minstrel vvhose design is to teach not to entertain to profit and not to please I had rather you should blush and be asham'd than laugh and that you should repent rather than triumph The School of a Philosopher O yea Men said Rufus of old is the shop of a physician vvhereunto Men hasten for health and not for Divertisement This Physician neither flatters nor smooths up any but pierces tents and searches the vvound and vvith a kind of sharp Salt of Speech fcoures away that Scurfe that cleaves to our Minds And therefore Lipsius dream not no not hereafter of Roses Pulse and Poppyes but of Thorns and Poynards of Worme-wood and Vinegar But said I Langius if I may say it you deal with me in an ill and malicious manner Nor do you as a skilfull vvrastler cast me upon a right lock but supplant me by a cheat In a counterfeit manner say you vve lament our Country Do I It is not so For to grant you this as one that means ingeniously that I have therein a respect unto my self yet not unto my self alone For I do lament Langius I do lament my Country in the First place and I vvill lament it although in the midst of its hazzards there should be no danger to me And that upon the justest grounds for this is she vvhich hath entertain'd foster'd and nourish'd me and is according to the common sence of Nations our most Reverend and Venerable Parent But in the mean time you assign me the whole Universe as my Country Who doubts it But yet even your self vvill confess that besides this vast and common one I have another more limited and peculiar Country unto vvhich by a certain secret bond of Nature I have a nearer Obligation Unless you do imagine that there is no force in our being swath'd and suckl'd in that our Native soil vvhich vve have first greeted vvith this Body of ours and first set foot upon vvhose Air vve have breath'd in which our Infancy hath cri'd our Childhood play'd and in vvhich our youth hath been educated and trained up Where the Skies and Rivers and Fields are familiar with our eyes wherein in a continued order are our Kindred and Friends and Associates and so many other invitations unto Joy as vve in vain hope to meet vvith in any other place of the Earth Nor are these tyes as you seem to assert from the slender threads of Opinion but from the strong Chains of Nature it self Go to the Creatures themselves and behold the vvildest among them do love and own the places vvhere they lodge and the Birds their Nests The very Fishes themselves in that vast and boundless Ocean do yet delight in the enjoyment of some certain part of it For what should I speak of Men Who vvhether they are civiliz'd or still in Barbarisme are yet so glew'd to their Native Earth that whosoever is a Man will never doubt to dye for and in it And therefore Langius this new and rigid Wisdom of yours for the present I neither embrace nor comprehend I am rather the Disciple of Euripides more truly affirming that Necessity it self commands All Men to love their Native Lands CHAP. XI The Second Affection of too much Love to our Country refuted That it is falsly call'd Piety As also whence this Affection hath its Original what is properly and truly our Country LAngius smiling at this discourse Young Man said he your Piety is vvonderful and now it concernes the Brother of Marcus Antonius to look after his Sir-name Notwithstanding it falls out vvell that this Affection doth so readily present it self and advance before its colours vvhich I had before determin'd to charge and to overthrow with some light endeavour But in the first place I must seize upon as spoil that very beautiful Garment wherewith it hath unhappily attyr'd it self For this Love unto our Country is commonly call'd Piety vvhich for my part as I do not understand so neither am I able to endure For how comes it to be Piety Which I acknowledge to be an excellent Virtue and properly nothing else but A LAWFUL DUE HONOUR AND LOVE TO GOD AND OUR PARENTS With vvhat Fore-head now doth our Country seat it self in the midst of these Because say they it is that vvhich is our most Ancient and Reverend Parent Ah silly Souls And herein injurious not only to Reason but also unto Nature it self Is that a Parent Upon vvhat account or in vvhat respect For I profess I see not if you Lipsius are any sharper sighted help to enlighten me Is it because it hath entertain'd us for that you seem'd to insinuate but now the like hath been done to us often by an Host or Inkeeper Hath it cherish'd us So have our Nurses and those Women that vvhen time vvas bare us too and fro vvith a farre greater tenderness Hath it nourish'd us This Office it performs daily to Beasts and Trees and all sorts of Grain and so do also those great Bodyes Heaven Air and VVater as vvell as the Earth To conclude transport your self and any other soil vvill performe the same These are frothy light vvords from vvhich nothing can be extracted besides a certain vulgar and unprofitable juice of Opinion Those are indeed our Parents vvho have conceiv'd begot and gone vvith us to vvhom vve are seed of their seed blood of their blood and flesh of their flesh Of all vvhich if there is any thing vvhich in any degree of comparison may be fitly spoken of our Country I am willing that all my attempts against this kind of Piety should prove but lost labour But say you there are many learned and great Men who every vvhere have spoken after this fashion I acknowledge it but it vvas then vvhen they had respect to Fame only
not to truth vvhich if you vvill follow you shall restore back that Sacred and August Name unto God or if you please to your Parents and command this Affection vvhen it is corrected to be contented vvith the honest name of Charity But thus far concerning the name only let us now consider the thing vvhich truly I shall not vvholly remove but moderate and pare as it vvere vvith the Pen-knife of Right Reason For as the Vine unless you prune it vvill very vvidely extend it self So vvill those Affections more especially vvhose Sails are swell'd vvith any gust of popularity And I readily confess to you Lipsius for I have not so put off at once both the Man and the Citizen that there is in every one of us a kind of inclination and Love to this lesser country of ours the causes and Original of vvhich I perceive are not so clearly understood by you For you vvill have it to be from Nature vvhereas it is indeed from a kind of usage and Custome For after that Men from that rude and solitary life vvere forc'd from the Fields into Towns and began to build Houses and Fortifications to grow into Societies and informed Bodies to make or repell invasions From that time there did of necessity commence amongst them a kind of Communion and Partnership as to divers things They together possess'd such a part of Earth vvith such and such limits They had their Temples Market-places Treasuries and Courts of Judicature in Common and vvhich is the principal bond their Rites Statutes and Lawes Which things yet our covetousnes did so begin to love and care for nor did it therein altogether erre as its own peculiar For there is indeed unto every particular Citizen a true right as to those things nor do they farther differ from private posessions than in this that they are not the propriety of any Person alone Now that Community doth express as it vvere a kind of forme and face of a new State vvhich vve call a Common-wealth and the same thing properly our Country In vvhich vvhen Men did understand how much of moment there vvas in reference to the safety of every particular Person there vvere then also Lawes made concerning the improvement and defence of it or at least a Custome derived from our Ancestours vvhich hath the force of a Law Hence it comes to pass that vve rejoyce in its advantages and grieve in its Calamities Forasmuch as in very deed our private substance is safe in the safety of it and perishes in the devastations of it Hence is charity or Love towards it vvhich our Ancestours upon the account of the publick good vvhereunto also a certain secret providence of God doth attract us have encreased vvhile they endeavour'd in every of their vvords and deeds to advance the Majesty of their Country This Affection therefore in my Opinion is from Custom but if from Nature as you did lately insinuate vvhat is the reason that it diffuseth not it self into all alike and in equal measure Why do the Nobility and vvealthier sort love and care for their Country more and the vulgar and meaner sort less Whom you may behold for the most part full of their own cares vvith a palpable neglect of the publick vvhich yet doth most certainly fall out otherwise in every such Affection as proceeds from the peremptory injunctions of Nature To conclude vvhat reason vvill you assigne why so light an occasion should oftentimes diminish or remove it See how this man Revenge a second Love and others Ambition hath allur'd from their Country and in our dayes how many hath the God Mammon in the same manner seduced How many Italians are there vvho quitting Italy the Queen of Countrys for gain alone have transported themselves into France Germany yea into Sarmatia and there fixed their habitations How many thousand Spaniards doth Avarice and Ambition yearly draw into remote Lands and of a different Climate Certainly a great and strong proof that this vvhole Obligation is but external and Opinionative seeing some one or other Lust can vvith that facility dissolve or break it But you erre also to purpose Lipsius in the bounding of that Country for you restrain it to that Native soil of ours vvherein vve have settled and whereupon we have walk'd and such other things as you tinckle with a vain sound of Words For you will seek in vain from thence the Natural causes of this Love For if only our Native soil may challenge that name then only Bruxells is my Country Isca thine a Cottage or a Hut vvill be some other Mans Yes there are many that vvill not have so much as a Cottage for theirs but must seek it in the Woods or open Fields Shall then my love and care be shut up vvithin such narrow limits Shall I embrace and defend this Village or that House as my Country You are sensible of the absurdities and Oh how happy according to your determination in these matters are those Wood-men and Rusticks vvhose Native soile is ever in its flourish and almost beyond all the hazzards of Calamity or Ruine But certainly that is not our Country No but as I said before some one State and as it vvere a common Ship under one Lord or under one Law VVhich if you vvill have of right to be beloved by its Natives I shall confess it If to be defended I shall acknovvledge it If death to be undergone for its sake I shall not be against it but shall never yield to that that vve should also grieve be cast dovvn lament If once our Country for it cry 'T is sweet and glorious then to dye Said the Poet of Venusia vvith the loud applause of the vvhole Theatre but then he said to dye not to vveep For vve ought so to be good Citizens as that vve may also be good Men vvhich vve cease to be as oft as vve decline to the ejulations and laments of Children or Women Finally Lipsius I impart that to you vvhich is lofty and knovvn but to some few That these are vain and counterfeit Countryes if you consider the whole Man That possibly for the Body there may be one found out here but not any for the Soul which descending from that celestial and upper Region hath the whole Earth as its Prison and place of restraint while Heaven is its true and proper Country After which let us breath that with Anaxagoras vve may Cordially reply to the Sottish Multitude as oft as it shall ask hast thou no care of thy Country There is my Country pointing at once vvith our Fingers and Minds unto Heaven CHAP. XII The third Affection which is Commiseration rectifyed to indulge it over much a Vice Its difference from Mercy How and with what respects it is to be admitted THis Discourse of Langius vvithdrew methought a Cloud from my understanding and my Father said I you still better me both by your reproofs and instructions So that methinks I
other impious contrivances They laugh I confess sometimes but it is no true laughter They rejoyce but their joyes are not genuine and kindly but it fares vvith them as vvith condemned vvretches in a prison who endeavour with Dice and Tables to shake out of their Memories the thoughts of their execution but are not able For the deep impression of their approaching punishment remains with them and the fearful Image of pale Death is continually before their Eyes Look now upon the Sicilian Tyrant vvith-dravving only the Veil of his outward happiness A drawn Sword hangs in a twine thread Over the wretches impious head Hear that Roman lamenting let the God's and Goddesses destroy me worse then I every day perceive my self to perish Hear that other thus sighing Am I then that only one vvho have neither Friend nor Enemy These Lipsius are the true torments and agonies of Souls to be in perpetual Anguish Sorrow Dread and which are incomparably beyond any Racks or other invented wayes for the torture of the Body CHAP. XV. That punishments after Death do await the wicked and that for the most part they are not acquitted from External ones is proved by examples ADde to these those Posthumous and External pains vvihch vve have learned from Divinity and which vvithout further discussion it will be sufficient only thus to mention Adde to those also external punishments which yet if they should be wanting since the former are inflicted who could reasonably blame the external Justice But they are not vvanting Nor was it ever at least very seldom but that publick oppressours and Men openly wicked do undergo publick and open punishments some sooner others later some in their own persons and others in those of their posterity You complain of Dionysius in Sicily that for many years with impunity he exercises his Lusts Rapine and Murthers Forbear awhile and you shall behold him inglorious exiled pennyless and from a Sceptre vvho would believe it reduc'd to a Ferula The King of that great Island shall teach School at Corinth being himself become the mockery of Fortune On the other side you resent it vvith passion that Pompey and his Army of Patricians should be vanquished in the Plains of Pharsalia and that the conquerour for some time doth wanton and even sport himself with Civill blood I do not wonder at you For I see here the helm of right reason wrested out of the hands of Cato himself and this faltering expression falls from him Divine things have much of obscurity in them But yet thou Lipsius thou Cato turn your eyes this way a little One sight shall reconcile you both to God See that ambitious Caesar that prov'd commander in his own opinion and in others too almost a God see him slain in the Senate house and by the hands of Senatours not falling by a single Death but secured by Three and twenty vvounds like some vvild beast weltring in his blood and vvhat vvould you more in Pompey's own Court and at the foot of Pompey's Statue falling a great Sacrifice to that great shade So methinks I pitty Brutus slain for and vvith his Country in the Fields of Philippi but vvithall I am some what satisfyed vvhen not long after I behold those victorious armies like gladiatours slaughtering one another at his Sepulchre and one of the Generalls Marcus Antonius vanquished both by Sea and land in the Company of three Women vvith that effeminate Arme of his scarce finding the Death he sought Where art thou now thou once Lord of all the East thou Butcher of the Roman armies the pursuer of Pompey and the Common-vvealth See how with thy bloody hand thou hangest in a Cord how being yet alive thou creepest into thy monument and how even in Death it self thou art unwilling to be divorc'd from her that vvas the cause of thy Death and then judge whether dying Brutus spent his last breath and vvish in vain Iove suffer not to scape from thee The cause of this Calamity No Brutus he vvas not hid neither did he escape No more did that other General vvho smarted for his youthful crimes not obscurely in his own person but most evidently in all his posterity Let him be the fortunate and great Caesar and truly Augustus but vvithall let him have a Iulia for his Daughter and another for his Grandchild Let him lose some of his Grandchildren by fraud others by force and let himself force others into exile and out of the impatience of these crosses let him attempt to dye by a four dayes abstinence but not be able To conclude let him live vvith his Livia dishonestly married and dishonestly detain'd and let him dye an unworthy Death by her on vvhom he so unworthily doted In summe saith Pliny that Diety and who I know not more vvhether he attain'd Heaven or merited it Let him dye and leave the Son of his Enemy to succeed him These and such like are to be thought of Lipsius as oft as complaints of injustice are ready to break from us and the Mind is presently to reflect upon these two things the slowness and the variety of punishments Is not that offendour punished now But he shall be Not in his Body Yet in his Conscience and Soul Not vvhile he lives Yet most certainly when he is dead Seldome slow punishments lame Feet forsake The wicked Wretch what hast soe're he make For that Divine Eye doth alwayes vvake and vvhen vve suppose him to sleep he doth but vvink Only see you entertain not any prejudice against him Nor go about rashly to judge him by whom shortly thy self is to be judged CHAP. XVI The Second Objection answered that all have deserved punishment in regard all have offended That Man cannot judge who is more or less culpable 'T is God only that clearly discerns betwixt crimes and therefore most justly punishes BUut say you there are some people punished that are guiltless and have no vvay deserved it For this is your Second complaint or rather Calumny Unadvised Young-man Are there then any punished vvho have not deserved it Where I beseech you are those innocent Nations to be found It is an excess of confidence yes absolute rashness and presumption to assert thus much concerning any one single person and shall you dare to justifie whole Nations But to small purpose this for I am satisfyed that all of us have sined and do still every day repeat it We are born in sin and so we live in it and to speak vvith the Satyrist the Magazeens of Heaven had been long since emptyed if its Thunder-bolts had alwayes fallen upon the Heads of such as deserved them For vve must not think that as Fishes though encreas'd and bred up in the Sea do yet retain nothing of its saltness so Men in the filthiness of this World should contract nothing of uncleaness If then all are in fault where are those guiltless people you speak of who have not deserved the punishments they
juice of Wisdom What matter is it how vve cure our patient so vve make a perfect cure of it CHAP. XIX That publick Evils are not so great as they seem proved first by Reason That we fear the circumstance and dress of things rather than themselves MArch on then my Legion and before the rest let that cohort first advance vvith vvhich vve shall maintain that these publick evils are not grievous this shall be performed vvith the double vveapon of reason and comparison of reason First for if vve respect that all those evils which are either present or imminent are not really either great or grievous but are so only in appearance It is Opinion that heightens and aggravates our calamities and presents them to us in so tragical a garbe But if you are wise disperse this circumjected Cloud and examine things by a clearer light For instance you fear Poverty amongst these publick Evils Banishment Death All which notwithstanding if you look upon them vvith a perfect and setled Eye vvhat are they If you examine them by their own just vveights how light are they This Warr or Tyranny by multiplyed contributions vvill exhaust you vvhat then You shall be a poor Man Did not Nature it self bring you into the World so And vvill it not hurry you thence in the same manner But if the despised and infamous name of it displease you change it call your self free and delivered For Fortune if you know it not hath disburdened you and placed you in a securer station vvhere none shall exhaust you any more So that vvhat you esteemed a loss is no other than a remedy But say you I shall be an exile call it if you please a stranger If you change your affection you change your Country A vvise Man vvheresoever he is is but a sojourner a Fool is ever banished But I daily expect Death from the Tyrant As if you did not do the same from Nature But that is an infamous Death that comes by the Ax or Halter Fool nor that nor any other Death is infamous unless your life be so Recall to your thoughts all the excellent and more illustrious persons since the vvorld began and you shall find them snatched away by a violent and untimely Death Thus Lipsius you must examine for I have given you but a tast all those things vvhich have so frightfull an appearance you must look upon them naked and apart from those vizards and disguises vvhich opinion hath put upon them But alass poor creatures vve gaze only upon the vain outsides of tâ—ings Nor do vve dread the things themselves so much as we do the circumstantial dresses of them If you put to Sea and it swell high your heart fails and you tremble at such a rate as if should you suffer Shipwrack you were to swallow it all vvhen alass one or two Sextaries would be sufficient If there be a sudden Earth-quake what a cry and vvhat fears it raises You apprehend immediately that the vvhole City or house at least vvill fall upon you Not considering how sufficient any single stone is to perform the vvork of Death 'T is thus in all these calamities in vvhich it is the noise and vain image of things that chiefly affrights us See that Guard these Swords And what can that Guard or those Swords do They vvill kill And vvhat is that being kill'd 'T is only a single Death and lest that name should affright you It is the departure of the Soul from the Body All those military troops All those threatning Swords shall perform no more than vvhat one Feaver one Grapestone or one Insect can do But this is the harsher vvay of dying Rather it is much the milder for that Feaver vvhich you vvould preferr does often torture a Man for a year together but these dispatch him vvith a blow in an instant Socrates therefore said vvell vvho vvas vvont to call all these things by no other name than that of Goblins and Vizzards vvhich if you put on you will fright the children but if you take them off again and appear vvith your own face they 'l come again to you and embrace you 'T is the very same vvith these evils vvhose Vizzards if your pluck off and behold them apart from their disguises you vvill confess you vvere scared vvith a childish fear As Hail falling upon a house dashes it self in pieces So if these calamities light upon a constant Mind they do not break it but themselves CHAP. XX. A Second proof by way of Comparison But first the Calamities of the Belgians and of the Age heightned That common Opinion refuted And proved that the Nature of Man is prone to aggravate our own Afflictions I Did not expect so serious a discourse from Langius and therefore interrupting him vvhether go you said I was this it you promised I expected the sweet and delicious vvines of History and you bring me such harsh and unpleasant ones as scarce all the stores of Wisdom vvill afford their like Suppose you that you are speaking to some Thales 'T is to Lipsius a Man and that of the middle rank vvho desires remedies that are somewhat more humane than these Langius vvith a mild countenance and tone I acknowledge said he you justly blame me For vvhile I followed that pure ray of reason I perceive I am got out of the common Road and unawares again fallen into the path of Wisdom But I return now to vvalk vvith you in a vvay that is better known since the austerity of that wine doth displease you I shall quallify and allay it vvith the sweets of examples I come now to comparison and I vvill clearly shew you that in all these calamities vvhich every vvay surround us there is nothing great or grievous if you compare them with those in times past For those of old vvere greater by many degrees and more truly to be lamented I replyed vvith a gesture that discovered something of impatience Will you averre this said I and hope you to perswade Me to believe what you have said Never Langius so long as I am Master of my reason for vvhat former age if you rightly consider it vvas ever so calamitous as this of ours or vvhat after one shall be What Nation What Country ever endured So heavy miseries and manifold Grievous or to be suffered or be told As vve Belgians do at this day You see vve are involved in a Warr not in a forreign one only but a civil and that in the very bowels of us For there are not only parties amongst us but O my Country vvhat hand shall preserve thee a subdivision of those parties Add to this the Pestilence add Famine add Taxes Rapines Slaughters and the height of all the Tyranny and Oppression not of our Bodies only but our Souls too And in the rest of Europe vvhat is there Either Warr or the expectation of Warr or if there be peace it is conjoyned with a base subjection to
immense contribution above the reach of our senses as vvell as of our Estates But Octavianus Caesar probably vvith some reference to his name exacted and received of all freed men the eighth part of their Estates I omit vvhat the Triumvir's and other Tyrants have done lest I should teach those of our times by the recitall of them Let that one of Colonies be instead of all examples of Exactions and Rapines An invention then vvhich nothing did more contribute to the strength of the Empire and nothing could be devised more grievous to the Subject Veterane Legions and Cohorts were drawn out into Towns and Fields and the miserable Provincials in a moment of time were thrust out of all their Estates and Fortunes and that for no offence or unlawful attempt their riches onely and plentiful possessions vvere their crimes In vvhich certainly the sum of all calamities is comprized It 's a great misfortune to be robbed of our money vvhat is it then to be deprived of our houses and lands And if it is grievous to be driven thence vvhat is it to be forced from our Country our Temples and Altars You might see some thousands of woful people hurryed away children from their Parents Masters from their Families Wives from their Husbands and thrown out into divers Countryes as their lot designed them Some amongst the thirsty Affricans and as the Poet saith in this very case Others were into Scythia hurl'd Or Brittain sever'd from the world One single Octavianus Caesar placed eight and twenty colonies in Italy only and in the Provinces as many as he pleased Nor vvas there any thing I know that vvas more destructive to the Gauls as Germans and the Spaniards CHAP. XXIV A rehearsall of some strange Cruelties and murthers in time past above the guilt of this Age. BUt yet say you there are such cruelties and murthers at this day as the like have not been heard of I know vvhat you point at and vvhat vvas done of late but I appeal to your conscience Lipsius vvas their no such thing amongst the ancients How ignorant are you if you know it not and how vvicked if you dissemble it For there is such a plenty of Examples in this matter and they lye so ready that it is some trouble even to choose Know you not the name of Sylla the Fortunate If you doe you remember that infamous and cruel prescription of his by vvhich he cast out of one City four thousand seven hundred Citizens Nor were they of the meaner sort but one hundred and forty of them vvere Senators Nor do I touch upon those infinite slaughters that were usually acted either by his permission or command So that not undeservedly those words burst from Quintus Catulus vvith vvhom at length shall vve live if in Warr vve kill armed Men and in peace the disarmed But shortly after this same Sylla vvas imitated by his Disciples I mean the triumvirs vvho in like manner proscribed three hundred Senators and above two thousand Roman Knights O vvickedness A greater cruelty than this the Sun in all its travels from the East unto the West did never yet behold not is like to do hereafter If you please you may look into Appianus and there you may behold the various and deformed condition of those times Of those that lay hid and fled of those that stopped their flight and halled them forth the vvoful vvailings of Wives and Children so that you vvould believe humanity itself had perished and fled from that savage and inhumane age These cruelties were acted upon the persons of Senatours and Knights that is to say upon so many little less than Kings and Princes but possibly the Commons were more favourably dealt with No such matter Look upon the same Sylla who commanded four Legions of the contrary party for whose security he had given his faith to be murthered in the publick Villa they in vain imploring the mercy of his treacherous right hand Whose dying groans reaching the Curia and the Senate being startled and amazed at it Let us mind our business Conscript Fathers said he a few seditious fellows are punished by my command I know not vvhich I should most vvonder at that a Man could do so or that he could speak so Will you have more examples of cruelty Take them Servius Galba in Spain summoning the people of three Cities together as if to communicate to them something to their advantage suddenly commanded seven thousand of them to be slain amongst vvhich vvas the flower of their youth In the same Country Lucius Licinius Lucullus the Consul sent his Souldiers into the City of the Caucaeans and slew twenty thousand of them contrary to the Articles agreed upon at their yielding Octavianus Augustus vvhen he had taken Perusia chose out three hundred of the chiefest of both orders and though they had yielded themselves he slew them as Sacrifices before an Altar vvhich he had erected to D. Iulius Antonius Caracalla being offended vvith those of Alexandria for I knovv not vvhat jests upon him enters that City in a semblance of peace and vvhen he had commanded all their young Men into the Field he surrounds them vvith his Souldiers upon a Signal given he kills them every one and using the same cruelty to the remaining multitude he utterly exhausted that populous and most frequented City King Mithridates by one letter caused eighty thousand Roman Citizens to be slain that were dispersed throughout Asia about their mercandise Volesus Messalla the Proconsul of Asia in one day caused three hundred to be beheaded and strutting amongst the dead bodyes with his armes on his sides as if he had done some glorious act cryed out aloud O Princely deed Hitherto I have only spoken of prophane and impious persons but behold amongst those that are devoted to the service of the true God You vvill find it of the Emperour Theodosius that having by the highest vvickedness and deceit betrayed seven thousand innocent people of Thessalonica into the Theatre under pretence of exhibiting some playes He sent his Souldiers amongst them and murthered them all Than vvhich fact nothing is to be found more impious in the records of all the Heathen impieties Go now my Belgians and after all this accuse the cruelty and treachery of the Princes of this Age. CHAP. XXV Of the present Tyranny That it is from humane Nature or Malice Oppressions external and internal were heretofore LAstly you complain of the Tyranny that is now adayes and the oppressions at once both of our Bodies and Souls My purpose is not at this time to applaud or condemn our own age for to what end were it My business is to compare only I ask you therefore when ever those evils vvere not and where that place was Assign me any one Age any one Nation without a remarkable Tyranny in it and for I 'le run the hazzard I will then confess that we are the most wretched do all that are miserable Why
do you not reply I see that old Sarcasme is true all the good Princes may be registred in a Ring For it is natural to Man to use authority insolently and hardly to keep a mean in that which it self is above it Even we our selves who complain of Tyranny do yet carry the feeds of it inclosed in our bosoms Nor is there a Will wanting in most of us to discover them but the power A Serpent vvhen he is benummed with cold hath poyson within him though he do not exert it 'T is the same in us whom only weakness keeps innocent and a kind of Winter in our Fortunes Give but power give means and I fear that the most of those that accuse would transcend the example of their superiours This is every dayes instance see that Father stern with his Children that Master with his Servants and that School-Master with his Scholars Each of them is a Phalaris in his kind and raise the same waves in their Brooks as Kings do in their greater Seas The same Nature is discernible in other creatures most of which prey upon their own kind both in the Air the Earth and the Water So greater Fish devaour the smaller fry And weaker Fowle under the Goshauks die sayes Varro truly but you will say these are the oppressions of Bodies only But this is the peculiar of our age that ours are of the Soul also Take heed you speak not this with more malice than truth That Man seems to me to be little skilled in the knowledge of himself and the heavenly nature of the Soul that thinks it can be forced or compelled For no outward violence whatsoever can make you will that which you do not will or to yield to that which you do not assent to Some have power over the bond and tye of the Soul but none over it self A tyrant may loose it from the Body but he cannot dissolve the nature of it which being pure eternal fiery dispises every external or violent attempt But we may not speak our own thoughts Be it so The bridle then curbs your Tongue only not your Mind your Actions but not your Judgment But even this is new and unheard of Good Man how are you mistaken How many can I point you out who have suffered under Tyrants for their opinions through the heedlesness of their tongues How many of those Tyrants have endeavoured to compel mens Judgements and their Judgements too in matters of Religion It vvas the common custom of the Persians and the Eastern Nations to adore their Kings and we know that Alexander challenged to himself that divine adoration with the ill will of his ruder Macedonians Amongst the Romans that good and moderate Emperour Augustus had in the Provinces yes in every house Flamens and Priests as a God Caligula cutting off the Heads from the Statues of the Gods with a ridiculous impiety caused his own to be placed upon them The same instituted a Temple Priests and chosen Sacrifices to his own deity Nero would be taken for Apollo and the most illustrious of the City were slain under this accusation that they had never sacrificed to the heavenly voice Domitian was openly called our Lord and God Which vanity or impiety if it were found at this day in any of our Kings what would you then say Lipsius I vvill sail no nearer this Scylla into which no vvinds of ambition shall either betray or force me For a secure old age is the reward of silence I will bring in only one testimony of the ancient slavery in this respect and that shall be out of an Author you are well acquainted vvith and I vvould have you to attend him 'T is Tacitus in the reign of Domitian We read sayes he that when Petus Thrasea was praised by Arulenus Rusticus and Priscus Helvidius by Herennius Senecio it was capital to them both Nor did the cruelty extend it self only to the Authors but also to their Works Charge being given to the Triumvirs that the monuments of those excellent wits should be burnt in the Forum and Comitium supposing by that one fire to have suppressed the voice of the people of Rome the liberty of the Senate and the conscience of Mankind The professours also of Wisdom were banished and all ingenious arts proscribed lest there should any where appear the least footsteps of honesty We gave certainly a grand example of our patience and as the foregoing ages saw the utmost height of liberty so did we of slavery the commerce of hearing and speaking being barred and in danger by informers VVe had certainly lost our memories together vvith our speech if it had been as much in our power to forget as it was to be silent CHAP. XXVI Lastly that these evils are neither strange nor new But common to all Nations and Men whence we may derive comfort I Have done vvith comparison and now I bring up the other Brigade of my Legion vvhich opposes the novelty of these Calamities But briefly and by vvay of Triumph For it rather takes the spoiles of the already conquered enemy than fights vvith him And to speak truth vvhat is there in these things that can appear new to any man that is not himself a gross Ignaro in humane affairs Crantor said excellently and vvisely who alwayes had this verse in his Mouth Ah me and why ah me VVe suffered but a humane misery For these Calamities do daily move in a Circle and in a kind of round pass through this round World Why do you sigh that these sad things fall out Why do you vvonder at it O Agamemnon thou wert not To pleasing things alone begot But to equal hopes and fears Interchange of joys and tears For thou art mortal humane born and though Thou should'st refuse the Gods will have it so It vvere rather a vvonder that any should be exempted from this common Law and should not have his part in that burthen vvhich lyes upon the backs of all Solon vvhen a friend of his at Athens was sadly be wailing himself he brings him into the Tower and from the top of it shews him all the houses of that great City Think vvith your self sayes he how many sorrows have heretofore been under these roofs now are and hereafter shall be And then cease to lament the evils of Mankind as if they vvere your own only I vvish I could give you the like prospect of this vvide World Lipsius but since it is not to be done actually let us imagine it I place you upon the top of some high Mountain Olympus if you please look down now upon all those Cities provinces and Kingdoms beneath And think that you see but so many inclosures of humane Calamities the Amphitheatres and as it vvere the Sands in vvhich the bloody sports of Fortune are exhibited You need not look farr from hence do you see Italy It is not yet thirty years since it rested from sharp and cruel vvarrs on every side See you