of Nature are the most precious Treasures What has any Man to desire more than to keep himself from Cold Hunger and Thirst It is not the Quantity but the Opinion that Governs in this Case That can never be Little which is Enough Nor does any Man accompt That to be Much which is too Little The Benefits of Fortune are so far Comfortable to us as we enjoy them without losing the Possession of our selves Let us Purge our Minds and follow Nature we shall otherwise be still either Fearing or Craving and Slaves to Accidents Not that there is any Pleasure in Poverty but it is a great Felicity for a Man to bring his Mind to be contented even in That State which Fortune it self cannot make worse Methinks our Quarrels with Ambition and Profitable Employments are somewhat like those we have with our Mistresses we do not Hate them but Wrangle with them In a word betwixt those things which are Sought and Coveted and yet Complain'd of and those things which we have Lost and pretend that we cannot live without our Misfortunes are purely Voluntary and we are Servants not so much by Necessity as by Choice No Man can be Happy that is not Free and Fearless And no Man can be so but he that by Philosophy has got the better of Fortune In what Place soever we are we shall find our selves beset with the Miseries of Humane Nature Some Without us that either Encompass us Deceive us or Force us Others Within us that eat up our very Hearts in the Middle of Solitude And it is not yet as we imagine that Fortune has Long Armes She meddles with no body that does not first lay hold upon Her We should keep a Distance therefore and withdraw into the Knowledge of Nature and of our Selves We Understand the Original of things the Order of the World the Circulation of the Seasons the Courses of the Stars and that the whole Frame of the Universe only the Earth excepted is but a Perpetual Motion We know the Causes of Day and Night of Light and of Darkness but it is at a distance Let us direct our Thoughts then to That Place where we shall see all nearer Hand And it is not This Hope neither that makes a Wise Man Resolute at the Point of Death because Death lies in his way to Heaven For the Soul of a Wise Man is there before-hand Nay if there were nothing after Death to be either Expected or Fear'd he would yet leave this World with as great a Mind though he were to pass into a State of Annihilation He that reckons every hour his Last a Day or an Age is all one to him Fate is doing our Work while we Sleep Death steales upon us Insensibly and the more Insensibly because it passes under the name of Life From Childhood we grow up without perceiving it to Old Age and this Encrease of our Life duely consider'd is a Diminution of it We take Death to be Before us but it is Behind us and has already swallow'd up all that is past Wherefore make use of the Present and trust nothing to the Morrow for Delay is just so much time lost We catch hold of Hopes and Flatteries of a little longer Life as Drowning Men do upon Thorns or Straws that either Hurt us or Deceive us You will ask perhaps what I do my Self that Preach at this Rate Truely I do like some ill Husbands that spend their Estates and yet keep their Accompts I run out but yet I can tell which way it goes And I have the Fate of Ill Husbands too another way for every Body Pitties me and no Body Helps me The Soul is never in the Right place so long as it fears to quit the Body Why should a Man trouble himself to extend Life which at Best is a kind of Punishment And at Longest amounts to very little more than Nothing He is Ungrateful that takes the Period of Pleasure for an Injury and he is Foolish that knows no Good but the Present Nay there are some Courses of Life which a Man ought to quit though with Life it self As the Trade of Killing Others in stead of Learning to Dye Himself Life it self is neither Good nor Evil but only a Place for Good and Evil. It is a kind of Trage-Comedy Let it be well Acted and no matter whether it be Long or Short We are apt to be missed by the Appearances of things and when they come to us recommended in Good Terms and by Great Example they will impose many times upon very Wise Men. The Mind is never Right but when it is at peace within it self and Independent upon any thing from Abroad The Soul is in Heaven even while it is in the Flesh if it be purg'd of Natural Corruptions and taken up with Divine Thoughts And whether any body sees us or takes notice of us it matters not Virtue will of it self break forth though never so much pains be taken to suppress it And it is all one whether it be known or no But After Ages however will do us Right when we are Dead and Insensible of the Veneration they allow us He that is wise will compute the Conditions of Humanity and contract the Subject both of his Joyes and Fears And it is time well spent so to Abate of the One that he may likewise Diminish the Other By this Practice he will come to understand how short how uncertain and how safe many of those things are which we are wont to Fear When I see a Splendid House or a glittering Train I look upon it as I do upon Courts which are only the Schools of Avarice and Ambition and they are at best but a Pompe which is more for Shew than Possession Beside that Great Goods are seldome Long-liv'd and That is the Fairest Felicity which is of the shortest Growth EPIST. XIX Of True Courage FOrtitude is properly the Contempt of all Hazards according to Reason though it be commonly and promiscuously used also for a Contempt of all Hazards even Without or Against Rea-Reason Which is rather a Daring and a Brutal Fierceness than an Honorable Courage A Brave Man fears Nothing more than the Weakness of being affected with Popular Glory His Eyes are not Dazled either with Gold or Steel he tramples upon all the Terrors and Glories of Fortune he looks upon himself as a Citizen and Soldier of the World and in despite of all Accidents and Oppositions he maintains his Station He does not only Suffer but Court the most Perilous Occasions of Virtue and those Adventures which are most Terrible to Others for he values himself upon Experiment and is more Ambitious of being reputed Good than Happy Mucius Lost his hand with more Honor than he could have Preserv'd it He was a greater Conqueror Without it than he could have been With it For with the very Stump of it he overcame two Kings Tarquin and Porsenna Rutilia follow'd Cotta into
How Miserable is that Man in Himself who when he has employ'd his Power in Rapines and Cruelty upon Others is yet more Unhappy in himself He stands in Fear both of his Domesticks and of Strangers the Faith of his Friends and the Piety of his Children and flies to Actual Violence to secure him from the Violence he Fears When he comes to look about him and to consider what he Has done what he Must and what he is About to do what with the Wickedness and with the Torments of his Conscience many times he Fears Death Oftner he wishes for 't and lives more Odious to himself than to his Subjects whereas on the Contrary he that takes a Care of the Publick though of One Part more perhaps than of Another yet there is not Any Part of it but he looks upon as Part of Himself His Mind is Tender and Gentle and even where Punishment is Necessary and Profitable he comes to it Unwillingly and without any Rancor or Enmity in his heart Let the Authority in fine be what it will Clemency becomes it and the Greater the Power the greater is the Glory of it It is a truly Royal Virtue for a Prince to deliver his People from Other Mens Anger and not to Oppress them with his Own The End SENECA'S MORALS The Third and Last Part. Digested into XXVIII EPISTLES By ROGER L'ESTRANGE LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Henry Brome at the Gun in S t Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXVIII THE Contents Epist. I. CErtain General Directions for the Government of the Voice as in speaking Soft or Loud Quick or Slow The Speech is the Index of the Mind Pag. 1. Epist. II. Of Stiles Compositions and the Choice of Words That 's the Best way of Writing and Speaking which is Free and Natural Advice concerning Reading p. 6. Epist. III. Against all sorts of Affectation in Discourse Phantastical Studies Impertinent and Unprofitable Subtilties Mans Business is Virtue not Words p. 16. Epist. IV. Business and want of Newes are no Excuse among Friends for not Writing Wise Men are the better for one another How far Wisdom may be advanc'd by Precept p. 26. Epist. V. Seneca gives an Accompt of Himself his Studies and of his Inclinations With many Excellent Reflections upon the Duties and the Errors of Humane Life p. 37. Epist. VI. The Blessings of a Virtuous Retirement How we come to the Knowledge of Virtue A Distinction betwixt Good and Honest. A Wise Man Contents himself with his Lot p. 49. Epist. VII Of Impertinent Studies and Impertinent Men. Philosophers the Best Companions p. 60. Epist. VIII Against Singularity of Manners and Behaviour p. 67. Epist. IX The Blessings of a Vigorous Mind in a Decay'd Body With some Pertinent Reflections of Seneca upon his Own Age. p. 72. Epist. X. Custome is a Great Matter either in Good or Ill. We should check our Passions Betimes Involuntary Motions are Invincible p. 78. Epist. XI We are Divided in our Selves and Confound Good and Evil. p. 84. Epist. XII We are mov'd at the Novelty of things for want of Understanding the Reason of them p. 92. Epist. XIII Every Man is the Artisicer of his Own Fortune Of Justice and Injustice p. 97. Epist. XIV Of Trust in Friendship Prayer and Bodily Exercise p. 102. Epist. XV. The Danger of Flattery and in what Cases a Man may be allow'd to Commend Himself p. 108. Epist. XVI A General Dissolution of Manners With a Censure of Corrupt Magistrates p. 114. Epist. XVII The Original of All Men is the Same And Virtue is the Only Nobility There is a Tenderness due to Servants p. 121. Epist. XVIII We are Juster to Men than to God Of Life and Death Of Good and Evil. p. 127. Epist. XIX Of True Courage p. 137. Epist. XX. 'T is Never too Late to Learn The Advantages of a Private Life and the Slavery of a Publick The Ends of Punishment p. 143. Epist. XXI The Two Blessings of Life are a Sound Body and a Quiet Mind The Extravagance of the Roman Luxury The Moderation and Simplicity of Former Times p. 152. Epist. XXII Man is Compounded of Soul and Body And has Naturally a Civil War within Himself The Difference betwixt a Life of Virtue and a Life of Pleasure p. 161. Epist. XXIII We abuse Gods Blessings and turn them into Mischiefs Meditations upon the Horrors of Earthquakes and Consolations against them Death is the same thing which way soever it comes Only we are more mov'd by Accidents that we are not us'd to p. 167. Epist. XXIV A Discourse of Gods Providence in the Misfortunes of Good Men in this World and in the Prosperity of the Wicked p. 178. Epist. XXV A Wise and a Good Man is Proof against all Accidents Of Fate p. 189. Epist. XXVI All things are Produced out of Cause and Matter Of Providence A Brave Man is a Match for Fortune p. 197. Epist. XXVII Some Traditions of the Antients concerning Thunder and Lightning with the Authors Contemplations Thereupon p. 204. Epist. XXVIII A Contemplation of Heaven and Heavenly Things Of God and of the Soul p. 211. Epistles EPIST. I. Certain General Directions for the Government of the Voice as in speaking Soft or Loud Quick or Slow The Speech is the Index of the Mind YOu say well that in Speaking the very Ordering of the Voice to say nothing of the Actions Countenances and other Circumstances that accompany it is a Consideration worthy of a Wise Man There are that prescribe Certain Modes of Rising and Falling Nay if you will be govern'd by Them you shall not speak a word move a step or eat a Bit but by a Rule And these perhaps are too Critical Do not understand me yet as if I made no Difference betwixt entring upon a Discourse Loud or Soft for the Affections do Naturally Rise by Degrees and in all Disputes or Pleadings whether Publick or Private a Man should properly Begin with Modesty and Temper and so Advance by little and little if need be into Clamor and Vociferation And as the Voice Rises by Degrees let it fall so too not Snapping off upon a sudden but Abating as upon Moderation The other is Unmannerly and Rude He that has a Precipitate speech is commonly violent in his Manners Beside that there is in it much of Vanity and Emptyness and no Man takes satisfaction in a Flux of Words without Choice where the Noise is more than the Value Fabian was a Man Eminent both for his Life and Learning and no less for his Eloquence His Speech was rather Easie and Sliding than Quick Which he accompted to be not only Lyable to many Errors but to a Suspicion of Immodesty Nay let a Man have Words never so much at Will he will no more speak Fast than he will Run for fear his Tongue should go before his Wit The Speech of a Philosopher should be like his Life Compos'd without Pressing or Stumbling which is fitter for a Mountebank than a
or Disswaded as they saw Occasion Their Prudence Provided for their Peoâ—…le their Courage Kept them Safe from Dangers their Bounty both Supply'd and Adorn'd their Subjects It was a Duty Then to Command not a Government No Man in those Dayes had either a Mind to do an Injury or a Cause for 't He that commanded well was Well Obey'd And the worst Menace the Governors could then make to the Disobedient was to Forsake them But with the corruption of Times Tyranny crept in and the World began to have Need of Laws and those Laws were made by Wise Men too as Solon and Licurgus who Learn'd their Trade in the School of Pythagoras EPIST. XXII Man is Compounded of Soul and Body And has Naturally a Civil War within Himself The Difference betwixt a Life of Virtue and a Life of Pleasure THere is not so Disproportionate a Mixture in any Creature as that is in Man of Soul and Body There is Intemperance joyn'd with Divinity Folly with Severity Sloth with Activity and Uncleanness with Purity But a Good Sword is never the worse for an Ill Scabbard We are mov'd more by Imaginary Fears than Truths for Truth has a Certainty and Foundation but in the other we are expos'd to the License and Conjecture of a Distracted Mind and our Enemies are not more Imperious than our Pleasures We set our Hearts upon Transitory things as if they Themselves were Everlasting or Wee on the other side to Possess them for Ever Why do we not rather advance our Thoughts to things that are Eternal and contemplate the Heavenly Original of all Beings Why do we not by the Divinity of Reason triumph over the weaknesses of Flesh and Blood It is by Providence that the World is preserv'd and not from any Virtue in the Matter of it for the World is as Mortal as we are Only the Allmighty Wisdome carries it safe through all the Motions of Corruption And so by Prudence Humane Life it self may be prolong'd if we will but stint our selves in those Pleasures that bring the greater part of us untimely to our End Our Passions are nothing else but Certain Disallowable Motions of the Mind Sudden and Eager which by Frequency and Neglect turn to a Disease as a Distillation brings us first to a Cough and then to a Pthisique We are carry'd Up to the Heavens and Down again into the Deep by Turns so long as we are govern'd by our Affections and not by Virtue Passion and Reason are a kind of Civil War within us and as the one or the other has Dominion we are either Good or Bad. So that it should be our Care that the worst Mixture may not prevaile And they are link'd like the Chain of Causes and Effects one to another Betwixt violent Passions and a Fluctuation or Wambling of the Mind there is such a Difference as betwixt the Agitation of a Storm and the Nauseous Sickness of a Calm And they have all of them their Symptomes too as well as our Bodily Distempers They that are troubled with the Falling Sickness know when the Fit is a Coming by the Cold of the Extremeâ—… Parts the Dazling of the Eye the failing of the Memory the Trembling of the Nerves and the Giddiness of the Head So that every Man knows his own Disease and should provide against it Anger Love Sadness Fear may be read in the Countenance And so may the Virtues too Fortitude makes the Eye Vigorous Prudence makes it Intent Reverence shews it self in Modesty Joy in Serenity and Truth in Openness and Simplicity There are Sown the Seeds of Divine things in Mortal Bodies If the Mind be well Cultivated the Fruit answers the Original and if not all runs into Weeds We are all of us Sick of Curable Diseases and it costs us more to be Miserable than would make us perfectly Happy Consider the Peaceable State of Clemency and the Turbulence of Anger the Softness and Quiet of Modesty and the Restlessness of Lust. How Cheap and easie to us is the Service of Virtue and how Dear we pay for our Vices The Sovereign Good of Man is a Mind that Subjects all things to it self and is it self subject to Nothing His Pleasures are Modest Severe and Reserv'd and rather the Sawce or the Diversion of Life than the Entertainment of it It may be some Question whether such a Man goes to Heaven or Heaven comes to Him For a Good Man is Influenc'd by God himself and has a kind of Divinity within him What if one Good Man Lives in Pleasure and Plenty and another in Want and Misery 't is no Virtue to contemn Superfluities but Necessities And they are both of them Equally Good though under several Circumstances and in Different Stations Cato the Censor wag'd War with the Manners of Rome Scipio with the Enemies Nay bating the very Conscience of Virtue Who is there that upon Sober Thoughts would not be an Honest Man even for the Reputation of it Virtue you shall find in the Temple in the Field or upon the Walls cover'd with Dust and Blood in the Defence of the Publick Pleasures you shall find Sneaking in the Stews Sweating-Houses Powder'd and Painted c. Not that Pleasures are wholly to be Disclaim'd but to be used with Moderation and to be made Subservient to Virtue Good Manners allwayes please us but VVickedness is Restless and perpetually Changing not for the Better but for Variety VVe are torn to pieces betwixt Hopes and Fears by which Means Providence which is the greatest Blessing of Heaven is turn'd into a Mischief VVild Beasts when they see their Dangers fly from them and when they have scap'd them they are Quiet but wretched Man is equally tormented both with things Past and to Come For the Memory brings back the Anxiety of our Past Fears and our Fore-sight Anticipates the Future VVhereas the Present makes no Man Miserable If we Fear all things that are Possible we live without any Bounds to our Miseries EPIST. XXIII We abuse Gods Blessings and turn them into Mischiefs Meditations upon the Horrors of Earthquakes and Consolations against them Death is the same thing which way soever it comes Only we are more mov'd by Accidents that we are not us'd to THere is nothing so Profitable but it may be Perverted to our Injury Without the Use of the Winds how should we do for Commerce Beside that they keep the Ayr Sweet and Healthful and bring seasonable Rains upon the Earth It was never the Intent of Providence that they should be Employ'd for War and Devastation and yet that 's a great Part of the Use we make of them pursuing one Hazard through another We expose our selves to Tempests and to Death without so much as the Hope of a Sepulchre And all this might be Born too if we only ran these Risques in order to Peace But when we have scap'd so many Rocks and Flats Thunder and Storms What 's the Fruit of all our Labor
Demolish'd but the Deity still remaines untouch'd EPIST. XXVII Some Traditions of the Antients concerning Thunder and Lightning with the Authors Contemplations Thereupon THere is no question but that Providence has given to Mortals the Tokens or Fore-runners of things to Come and by those meanes laid open in some measure the Decrees of Fate Only we take Notice of some things without giving any heed to Others There is not any thing done according to the Course of Nature which is not either the Cause or the Sign of something that follows So that wheresoever there is Order there is place for Prediction But there is no judgement to be given upon Accidents Now though it is a very hard matter to arrive at the Fore-Knowledge of things to come and to predict particularly what shall hereafter fall out Upon a Certain Knowledge of the Power and Influences of the Stars It is yet unquestionable that they have a Power though we cannot expresly say what it is In the Subject of Thunder there are several Opinions as to the significations of it The Stoicks hold that because the Cloud is Broken therefore the Bolt is shot according to Common Speech Others Conjecture that the Cloud is broken to that very End that it may discharge the Thunder-Bolt referring all in such sort to God as if the signification did not arise from the thing done but as if the thing it self were done for the signification sake But whether the signification goes before or follows it comes all to the same Point There are Three sorts of Lightning the First is so pure and subtile that it pierces through whatsoever it Encounters The Second Shatters and Breaks every thing to pieces the Other Burns either by Blasting Consuming Inflaming or Discolouring and the like Some Lightnings are Monitory Some are Mâ—…nacing and others they Phansy to be Promising They Allot to Iupiter Three Sorts the First is only Monitory and Gentle which he casts of his own Accord The Second they make to be an Act of Counsel as being done by the Vote and Advice of Twelve Gods This they say does many times some Good but not without some Mischief too As the Destruction of One Man may prove the Caution of another The Third is the Result of a Council of the Superior Deities from whence proceed great Mischiefs both Publick and Private Now this is a great Folly to Imagine that Iupiter would wreak his Displeasure upon Pillars Trees nay upon Temples themselves and yet let the Sacrilegious go Free To strike Sheep and Consume Altars and all this upon a Consultation of the Gods as if he wanted either Skill or Justice to Govern his own Affairs by himself either in Sparing the Guilty oâ—… in Destroying the Innocent Now What should be the Mistery of all this The Wisdom of our Forefathers found it necessary to keep Wicked People in Awe by the Apprehension of a Superior Power And to Fright them into their good Behaviour by the Fear of an Armed and an Avenging Justice over their Heads But How comes it that the Lightning which comes from Iupiter himself should be said to be harmless and That which he casts upon Counsel and Advice to be so Dangerous and Mortal The Moral of it is This. That all Kings should after Iupiters Example do all Good by themselves And when Severity is Necessary permit That to be done by Others Beside that as Crimes are Unequal so also should be the Punishments Neither did they believe That Iupiter to be the Thunderer whose Image was worship'd in the Capitol and in other Places but intended it of the Maker and Governor of the Universe by what Name soever we shall call him Now in truth Iupiter does not Immediately cast the Lightning himself but leaves Nature to her Ordinary Method of Operation so that what he does not Immediately by himself he does yet Cause to be done For whatsoever Nature does God does There may be something gather'd out of all things that are either said or done that a Man may be the better for And he does a greater thing that Masters the Fear of Thunder than he that discovers the Reason of it We are Surrounded and Beset with Ill Accidents and since we cannot avoid the stroke of them let us prepare our selves honestly to bear them But How must that be By the Contempt of Death we do also Contemn all things in the way to it as Wounds Shipwracks the Fury of Wild Beasts or any other violence whatsoeever which at the worst can but part the Soul and the Body And we have this for our Comfort though our Lives are at the Mercy of Fortune she has yet no power over the Dead How many are there that call for Death in the Distress of their Hearts even for the very Fear of it And this Unadvised Desire of Death does in Common affect both the best and the worst of Men only with this Difference the Former Despise Life and the other are Weary of it 'T is a Nauseous thing to serve the Body and to be so many years a doing so many Beastly things over and over It is well if in our Lives we can please Others but whatever we do in our Deaths let us be sure to please our selves Death is a thing which no Care can avoid no Felicity can Tame it no Power Overcome it Other things are Disposed of by Chance and Fortune but Death treats all Men alike The Prosperous must Dye as well as the Unfortunate and methinks the very Despair of overcoming our Fate should inspire us with Courage to Encounter it For there is no Resolution so Obstinate as that which arises from Necessity It makes a Coward as bold as Iulius Caesar though upon different Principles We are all of us reserv'd for Death and as Nature brings forth One Generation she Calls back Another The whole Dispute is about the Time but no body doubts about the Thing it self EPIST. XXVIII A Contemplation of Heaven and Heavenly Things Of God and of the Soul THere is a great Difference betwixt Philosophy and other Arts and a greater yet betwixt That Philosophy it self which is of Divine Contemplation and That which has a regard to things here Below It is much Higher and Braver It takes a Larger Scope and being unsatisfy'd with what it sees it aspires to the Knowledge of something that is Greater and Fairer and which Nature has placed out of our Ken. The One only teaches us what is to be done upon Earth the Other reveales to us That which Actually is done in Heaven The One discusses our Errors and holds the Light to us by which we distinguish in the Ambiguities of Life the Other Surmounts that Darkness which we are wrapt up in and carries us up to the Fountain of Light it self And then it is that we are in a special manner to acknowledge the Infinite Grace and Bounty of the Nature of things when we see it not only where it is Publick
's sake more than for the Gods and all this Rabble of Deities which the Superstition of many Ages has gather'd together we are in such manner to adore as to consider the Worship to be rather Matter of Custome than of Conscience Whereupon St. Augustine observes That this Illustrious Senator Worship'd what he Reprov'd Acted what he Dislik'd and Ador'd what he Condemn'd SENECA'S LIFE and DEATH IT has been an Ancient Custome to Record the Actions and the Writings of Eminent Men with all their Circumstances and it is but a Right that we owe to the Memory of our Famous Author Seneca was by Birth a Spaniard of Cordova a Roman Colony of great Fame and Antiquity He was of the Family of Annaeus of the Order of Knights and the Father Lucius Annaeus Seneca was distinguish'd from the Son by the Name of the Orator His Mothers Name was Helvia a Woman of Excellent Qualities His Father came to Rome in the time of Augustus and his Wife and Children soon follow'd him our Seneca yet being in his Infancy There were three Brothers of them and never a Sister Marcus Annaeus Novatus Lucius Annaeus Seneca and Lucius Annaeus Mela. The first of these chang'd his Name for Iunius Gallio who adopted him to him it was that he Dedicated his Treatise of Anger whom he calls Novatus too and he also Dedicated his Discourse of a Happy Life to his Brother Gallio The youngest Brother Annaeus Mela was Lucan's Father Seneca was about Twenty years of Age in the Fifth year of Tiberius when the Iews were expell'd Rome His Father train'd him up to Rhetorick but his Genius led him rather to Philosophy and he apply'd his Wit to Morality and Virtue He was a great Hearer of the Celebrated Men of those times as Attalus Sotion Papirius Fabianus of whom he makes often mention and he was much an Admirer also of Demetrius the Cynique whose conversation he had afterwards in the Court and both at home also and abroad for they often Travell'd together His Father was not at all pleas'd with his humor of Philosophy but forc'd him upon the Law and for a while he Practis'd Pleading After which he would needs put him upon Publick Employment and he came first to be Quaestor and then Praetor and some will have it that he was chosen Consul but this is doubtful Seneca finding that he had ill Offices done him at Court and that Nero's Favour began to cool he went directly and resolutely to Nero with an Offer to refund all that he had gotten Which Nero would not receive but however from that time he chang'd his Course of Life receiv'd few Visits shun'd Company went little abroad still pretending to be kept at home either by Indisposition or by his Study Being Nero's Tutor and Governour all things went well so long as Nero follow'd his Counsel His two Chief Favorites were Burrhus and Seneca who were both of them Excellent in their wayes Burrhus in his care of Military Affairs and severity of Discipline Seneca for his Precepts and Good Advice in the matter of Eloquence and the Gentleness of an Honest Mind assisting one another in that slippery Age of the Prince sayes Tacitus to invite him by the Allowance of Lawful Pleasures to the Love of Virtue Seneca had two Wives the Name of the first is not mention'd his second was Paulina whom he often speaks of with great Passion By the former he had his Son Marcus In the first year of Claudius he was Banish'd into Corsica when Iulia the Daughter of Germanicus was accus'd by Messalina of Adultery and Banish'd too Seneca being charg'd as one of the Adulterers After a matter of Eight years or upwards in Exile he was call'd back and as much in favor again as ever His Estate was partly Patrimonial but the greatest part of it was the Bounty of his Prince His Gardens Villa's Lands Possessions and Incredible Sums of Mony are agreed upon at all hands which drew an Envy upon him Dio reports him to have had 250000 l. Sterling at Interest in Brittany alone which he call'd in all at a Sum. The Court it self could not bring him to Flattery and for his Piety Submission and Virtue the Practice of his whole Life witnesses for him So soon sayes he as the Candle is taken away my Wife that knowes my Custome lies still without a word speaking and then do I Recollect all that I have said or done that day and take my self to shrift And why should I conceal or reserve any thing or make any Scruple of enquiring into my Errors when I can say to my self Do so no more and for this once I 'll forgive thee And again What can be more Pious and Self-denying than this Passage in one of his Epistles Believe me now when I tell you the very bottom of my Soul In all the Difficulties and Crosses of my life this is my Consideration Since it is God's Will I do not only obey but assent to 't nor do I comply out of Necessity but Inclination Here follows now sayes Tacitus the Death of Seneca to Nero's great satisfaction Not so much for any pregnant Proof against him that he was of Piso's Conspiracy but Nero was resolv'd to do that by the Sword which he could not Effect by Poyson For it is reported that Nero had corrupted Cleonicus a Freeman of Seneca ' s to give his Master Poyson which did not succeed whether that the servant had discover'd it to his Master or that Seneca by his own caution and Iealousie had avoided it for he liv'd only upon a simple Diet as the Fruits of the Earth and his Drink was most commonly River-water Natalis it seems was sent upon a Visit to him being indispos'd with a Complaint that he would not let Piso come at him and Advising him to the Continuance of their Friendship and Acquaintance as formerly To whom Seneca made Answer That frequent Meetings and Conferences betwixt them could do neither of them any Good but that he had a great Interest in Piso's wellfare Hereupon Granius Silvanus a Captain of the Guard was sent to examine Seneca upon the Discourse that pass'd betwixt him and Natalis and to return his Answer Seneca either by Chance or upon Purpose came that day from Campania to a Villa of his own within four Miles of the City and thither the Officer went the next Evening and beset the Place He found Seneca at Supper with his Wife Paulina and two of his Friends and gave him immediately an Account of his Commission Seneca told him that it was true that Natalis had been with him in Piso's Name with a Complaint that Piso could not be admitted to see him and that he exous'd himself by reason of his want of health and his desires to be quiet and private and that he had no reason to prefer another Mans Wellfare before his own Caesar himself he said knew very well that he was not a Man of Complement
that never intended it saves a Third Where 's the difference now betwixt the Obligation of the one and of the other A Man falls into a River and the fright cures him of an Ague we may call this a kind of lucky Mischance but not a Remedy And so it is with the Good we receive either without or beside or contrary to Intention It is the Mind and not the Event that distinguishes a Benefit from an Injury CHAP. V. There must be Iudgment in a Benefit as well as Matter and Intention and especially in the Choice of the Person AS it is the Will that Designs the Benefit and the Matter that Conveys it So it is the Iudgment that perfects it which depends upon so many Critical Niceties that the least Error either in the Person the Matter the Manner the Quality the Quantity the Time or the Place spoiles all THE Consideration of the Person is a Main Point for we are to give by choice and not by hazard My Inclination bids me oblige one Man I am bound in Duty and Justice to serve another here 't is Charity there 't is Pitty and elsewhere perhaps Encouragement There are some that want to whom I would not give because if I did they would want still To one Man I would barely offer a Benefit but I would press it upon another To say the truth we do not employ any Money to more profit than that which we bestow and 't is not to our Friends our Acquaintances or Countrymen nor to this or that Condition of Men that we are to restrain our Bounties but wheresoever there is a Man there is a Place and Occasion for a Benefit We give to some that are good already to others in hope to make them so but we must do all with discretion for we are as answerable for what we give as for what we receive Nay the Misplacing of a Benefit is worse than the not Receiving of it For the one is another Mans fault but the other is mine The Error of the Giver does oft-times excuse the Ingratitude of the Receiver for a Favour ill-plac'd is rather a Profusion than a Benefit It is the most shameful of Losses an Inconsiderate bounty I will chuse a Man of Integrity Syncere Considerate Graceful Temperate Well-natur'd neither Covetous nor Sordid And when I have oblig'd such a Man though not worth a Groat in the World I have gain'd my end If we give only to receive we lose the fairest objects for our Charity the Absent the Sick the Captive and the Needy When we oblige those that can never pay us again in kind as a Stranger upon his last Farewell or a Necessitous Person upon his Death-bed we make Providence our Debtor and rejoyce in the Conscience even of a Fruitless Benefit So long as we are affected with Passions and distracted with hopes and fears and the most unmanly of Vices with our Pleasures we are incompetent Judges where to place our Bounties But when Death presents it self and that we come to our Last Will and Testament we leave our Fortunes to the most worthy He that gives nothing but in hopes of receiving must dye Intestate It is the Honesty of another Mans Mind that moves the Kindness of Mine and I would sooner oblige a Grateful Man than an Ungrateful but this shall not hinder me from doing good also to a Person that is known to be Ungrateful Only with this difference that I will serve the one in all Extremities with my life and fortune and the other no further than stands with my Convenience But What shall I do you 'll say to know whether a Man will be grateful or no I will follow Probability and hope the best He that Sowes is not sure to Reap nor the Seaman to reach his Port nor the Soldier to win the Field He that VVeds is not sure his VVife shall be honest or his Children dutiful but Shall we therefore neither Sow Sayl bear Armes nor Marry Nay if I knew a Man to be incurably thankless I would yet be so kind as to put him into his Way or let him Light a Candle or Draw Water at my Well which may stand him perhaps in great stead and yet not be reckon'd as a Benefit from me for I do it carelesly and not for his sake but my own as an Office of Humanity without any Choice or Kindness CHAP. VI. The Matter of Obligations with its Circumstances NEXT to the Choice of the Person follows that of the Matter wherein a regard must be had to Time Place Proportion Quality and to the very Nicks of Opportunity and Humour One Man values his Peace above his Honour Another his Honour above his Safety and not a few there are that provided they may save their Bodies never care what becomes of their Souls So that Good Offices depend much upon Construction Some take themselves to be oblig'd when they are not Others will not believe it when they are and some again take Obligations and Injuries the one for the other FOR our better direction let it be noted That a Benefit is a Common Tye betwixt the Giver and the Receiver with a respect to both Wherefore it must be accommodate to the Rules of Discretion for all things have their Bounds and Measures and so must Liberality among the rest that it be neither too much for the One nor too little for the Other the Excess being every jot as bad as the Defect Alexander bestow'd a City upon one of his Favourites who modestly excusing himself That it was too much for him to receive Well But sayes Alexander it is not too much for me to give a haughty certainly and an imprudent Speech for that which was not fit for the one to Take could not be fit for the other to Give It passes in the World for Greatness of Mind to be perpetually giving and loading of People with Bounties but 't is one thing to know how to give and another thing not to know how to keep Give me a heart that 's easie and open but I 'll have no holes in 't let it be bountiful with Judgment but I 'll have nothing run out of it I know not how How much greater was he that refus'd the City than the other that offer'd it Some men throw away their Money as if they were Angry with it which is the Error commonly of weak Minds and large Fortunes No Man esteemes of any thing that comes to him by Chance but when 't is Govern'd by Reason it brings Credit both to the Giver and Receiver whereas those favours are in some sort scandalous that make a Man asham'd of his Patron IT is a Matter of great Prudence for the Benefactor to Suit the Benefit to the Condition of the Receiver who must be either his Superiour his Inferiour or his Equal and that which would be the highest Obligation imaginable to the one would perhaps be as great a Mockery and
it self It is the Habit of a Perfect Mind and the Perfection of Humanity rais'd as high as Nature can carry it It differs from Philosophy as Avarice and Money the One desires and the Other is desir'd the one is the Effect and the Reward of the other To be Wise is the Use of Wisdom as Seeing is the Use of Eyes and Well-speaking the Use of Eloquence He that is perfectly Wise is perfectly Happy Nay the very beginning of Wisdome makes Life easie to us Neither is it enough to know this unless we print it in our Minds by daily Meditation and so bring a good Will to a good Habit. And we must Practise what we Preach For Philosophy is not a Subject for popular Ostentation nor does it rest in Words but in Things It is not an Entertainment taken up for delight or to give a Taste to our Leisures but it fashions the Mind governs our Actions tells us what we are to do and what not It sits at the Helme and guides us through all Hazzards Nay we cannot be safe without it for every hour gives us occasion to make use of it It Informs us in all the Duties of Life Piety to our Parents Faith to our Friends Charity to the Miserable Judgment in Counsel It gives us Peace by Fearing nothing and Riches by Coveting nothing THERE' 's no Condition of Life that excludes a Wise Man from discharging his Duty If his Fortune be good he tempers it if bad he masters it if he has an Estate he will exercise his Virtue in Plenty if none in Poverty if he cannot do it in his Country he will do it in Banishment if he has no command he will do the office of a common Soldier Some People have the skill of reclaiming the fiercest of Beasts they will make a Lyon Embrace his Keeper a Tyger Kiss him and an Elephant Kneel to him This is the Case of a Wise Man in the extremest Difficulties Let them be never so terrible in themselves when they come to him once they are perfectly tame They that ascribe the Invention of Tillage Architecture Navigation c. to Wise Men may perchance be in the right that they were invented by Wise Men but they were not invented by Wise Men as Wise Men For Wisdome does not teach our Fingers but our Minds Fiddling and Dancing Arms and Fortifications were the Works of Luxury and Discord but Wisdome instructs us in the wayes of Nature and in the Arts of Unity and Concord Not in the Instruments but in the Government of Life nor to make us live only but to live happily She teaches us what things are Good what Evil and what only appear so and to distinguish betwixt true Greatness and Tumour She Clears our Minds of Dross and Vanity she raises up our Thoughts to Heaven and carries them down to Hell She discourses the Nature of the Soul the Powers and Faculties of it the first Principles of things the Order of Providence she exalts us from things Corporal to Incorporeal and retrives the Truth of all She searches Nature gives Laws to Life and tells us That it is not enough to know God unless we Obey him She looks upon all Accidents as Acts of Providence sets a true Value upon things delivers us from false Opinions and Condemns All Pleasures that are attended with Repentance She allows nothing to be Good that will not be so for ever No Man to be Happy but he that needs no other Happiness then what he has within himself no Man to be Great or Powerful that is not Master of himself This is the Felicity of Humane Life a Felicity that can neither be corrupted noâ—… extinguish'd It enquires into the Nature of the Heavens the Influences of the Stars â—…ow far they operate upon our Minds and Bodies which thoughts though they do not form our Manners they do yet raise and dispose us for Glorious things IT is agreed upon at all Hands that Right Reason is the Perfection of Humane Nature and Wisdome only the Dictate of it The Greatness that arises from it is solid and unmoveable the Resolutions of Wisdome being Free Absolute and Constant whereas Folly is never long pleas'd with the same thing but still shifting of Counsels and Sick of it self There can be no Happiness without Constancy and Prudence for a Wise Man is to write without a Blot and what he likes once he approves for ever He admits of nothing that is either Evil or Slippery but Marches without Staggering or Stumbling and is never surpriz'd He lives alwayes True and Steady to himself and whatsoever befalls him this great Artificer of both Fortunes turns to Advantage He that demurs and hesitates is not yet compos'd but wheresoever Virtue interposes upon the Main there must be Concord and Consent in the Parts For all Virtues are in Agreement as well as all Vices are at Variance A Wise Man in what condition soever he is will be still Happy for he subjects all things to himself because he submits himself to Reason and governs his Actions by Counsel not by Passion He is not mov'd with the Utmost Violences of Fortune nor with the Extremities of Fire and Sword whereas a Fool is afraid of his own shadow and surpriz'd at ill Accidents as if they were all levell'd at him He does nothing unwillingly for whatever he finds necessary he makes it his Choice He propounds to himself the Certain Scope and end of Humane Life He followes that which conduces to 't and avoids that which hinders it He is content with his Lot whatever it be without wishing what he has not though of the two he had rather abound then want The great Business of his Life like that of Nature is perform'd without Tumult or Noise He neither fears danger nor provokes it But it is his Caution not any want of Courage for Captivity Wounds and Chains he only looks upon as false and Lymphatical Terrors He does not pretend to go through with whatever he Undertakes but to do that well which he does Arts are but the Servants Wisdome Commands and where the matter fails 't is none of the Workmans fault He is Cautelous in doubtful Cases in Prosperity temperate and resolute in Adversity Still making the best of every Condition and improving all Occasions to make them serviceable to his Fate Some Accidents there are which I confess may Affect him but not Overthrow him as Bodily Pains Loss of Children and Friends the Ruine and Desolation of a Mans Country One must be made of Stone or Iron not to be sensible of these Calamities and beside it were no Virtue to bear them if a Body did not feel them THERE are Three degrees of Proficients in the School of Wisdom The first are those that come within sight of it but not up to 't They have learn'd what they ought to do but they have not put their Knowledge in practise they are past the hazard of a
exposes a Man to Appetites that are vast unlimited and intolerable Virtue is Free and Indefatigable and accompany'd with Concord and Gracefulness Whereas Pleasure is meane servile transitory tiresome and sickly and scarce out-lives the tasting of it It is the good of the Belly and not of the Man and only the Felicity of Brutes Who does not know that Fools enjoy their Pleasures and that there is great variety in the Entertainments of Wickedness Nay the Mind it self has its variety of Perverse Pleasures as well as the Body as Insolence Self-Conceipt Pride Garrulity Laziness and the Abusive Wit of turning every thing into Ridicule whereas Virtue Weighs all this and Corrects it It is the Knowledge both of others and of it self it is to be learn'd from it self and the very Will it self may be Taught which Will cannot be right unless the whole habit of the Mind be right from whence the Will comes It is by the Impulse of Virtue that we Love Virtue so that the very way to Virtue lies by Virtue which takes in also at a View the Laws of Humane Life NEITHER are we to value our selves upon a day or an hour or any one Action but upon the whole habit of the Mind Some Men do one thing bravely but not another they will shrink at Infamy and bear up against Poverty In this Case we commend the Fact and despise the Man The Soul is never in the right place till it be deliver'd from the Cares of Humane Affairs We must Labour and Climb the Hill if we will arrive at Virtue whose seat is upon the Top of it He that masters Avarice and is truely good stands firm against Ambition he looks upon his last hour not as a Punishment but as the Equity of a Common Fate He that Subdues his Carnal Lusts shall easily keep himself unteinted with any other So that Reason does not Encounter this or that Vice by it self but beats down all at a Blow What does he care for Ignominy that only values himself upon Conscience and not Opinion Socrates look'd a Scandalous Death in the Face with the same Constancy that he had before practis'd toward the Thirty Tyrants his Virtue consecrated the very Dungeon as Cato's Repulse was Cato's Honor and the reproach of the Government He that is wise will take delight even in an Ill opinion that is well gotten 't is Ostentation not Virtue when a Man will have his good Deeds publish'd and 't is not enough to be just where there is honour to be gotten but to continue so in defiance of Infamy and Danger BUT Virtue cannot lye hid for the time will come that shall raise it again even after it is bury'd and deliver it from the Malignity of the Age that oppress'd it Immortal Glory is the Shadow of it and keeps it Company whether we will or no but sometimes the Shadow goes before the Substance and otherwhiles it follows it and the later it comes the larger it is when even Envy it self shall have given way to 't It was a long time that Democritus was taken for a Madman and before Socrates had any Esteem in the World How long was it before Cato could be Understood Nay he was Affronted Contemn'd and Rejected and People never knew the value of him till they had lost him the Integrity and Courage of Rutilius had been forgotten but for his Sufferings I speak of those that Fortune has made Famous for their Persecutions and there are others also that the World never took notice of till they were Dead as Epicurus and Metrodorus that were almost wholly unknown even in the Place where they Liv'd Now as the Body is to be kept in upon the Downhill and forc'd Upwards So there are some Virtues that require the Rein and others the Spur. In Liberality Temperance Gentleness of Nature we are to check our selves for fear of falling but in Patience Resolution and Perseverance where we are to Mount the Hill we stand in need of Encouragement Upon this Division of the Matter I had rather steer the Smoother Course than pass through the Experiments of Sweat and Blood I know it is my Duty to be content in all Conditions but yet if it were at my Choice I would chuse the fairest When a Man comes once to stand in need of Fortune his Life is Anxious Suspicious Timorous Dependent upon every moment and in fear of all Accidents How can that Man Resign himself to God or bear his Lot whatever it be without Murmuring and chearfully submit to Providence that shrinks at every Motion of Pleasure or Pain It is Virtue alone that raises us above Griefs Hopes Fears and Chances and makes us not only Patient but willing as knowing that whatever we suffer is according to the Decree of Heaven He that is overcome with Pleasure so contemptible and weak an Enemy What will become of him when he comes to grapple with Dangers Necessities Torments Death and the Dissolution of Nature it self Wealth Honor and Favour may come upon a Man by Chance nay they may be cast upon him without so much as looking after them but Virtue is the work of Industry and Labour and certainly 't is worth the while to purchase that good which brings all others along with it A Good Man is Happy within himself and Independent upon Fortune Kind to his Friend Temperate to his Enemy Religiously Just Indefatigably Laborious and he discharges all Duties with a Constancy and Congruity of Actions CHAP. IV. Philosophy is the Guide of Life IF it be true that the Understanding and the Will are the two Eminent Faculties of the Reasonable Soul it follows necessarily that Wisdome and Virtue which are the best Improvement of those two Faculties must be the Perfection also of our Reasonable Being and consequently the Undenyable Foundation of a Happy Life There is not any Duty to which Providence has not annex'd a Blessing not any Institution of Heaven which even in this Life we may not be the better for not any temptation either of Fortune or of Appetite that is not subjected to our Reason nor any Passion or Affliction for which Virtue has not provided a Remedy So that it is our own fault if we either Fear or Hope for any thing which two Affections are the Root of all our Miseries From this General Prospect of the Foundation of our Tranquillity we shall pass by degrees to a particular Consideration of the meanes by which it may be procur'd and of the Impediments that obstruct it beginning with that Philosophy which principally regards our Manners and Instructs us in the Measures of a Virtuous and a Quiet Life PHILOSOPHY is divided into Moral Natural and Rational The First concerns our Manners the Second searches the Works of Nature and the Third furnishes us with Propriety of Words and Arguments and the faculty of distinguishing that we may not be impos'd upon with Tricks and Fallacies The Causes of things
Submit to Bad He must stand upon his Guard against all Assaults He must stick to himself without any dependence upon other People VVhere the Mind is tinctur'd with Philosophy there 's no place for Grief Anxiety or Superfluous Vexations It is prepossess'd with Virtue to the neglect of Fortune which brings us to a degree of security not to be disturb'd 'T is easier to give Counsel than to take it and a Common thing for one Cholerick Man to condemn another VVe may be sometimes Earnest in Advising but not Violent or Tedious Few words with Gentleness and Efficacy are best the misery is that the Wise do not need Counsel and Fools will not take it A Good Man 't is true delights in it and it is a mark of Folly and Ill Nature to hate Reproof To a Friend I would be alwayes Frank and Plain and rather fail in the Success than be wanting in the Matter of Faith and Trust. There are some Precepts that serve in Common both to the Rich and Poor but they are too general as Cure your Avarice and the work is done It is one thing not to desire Mony and another thing not to understand how to use it In the Choice of the Persons we have to do withal we should see that they be worth our while In the Choice of our Business we are to consult Nature and follow our Inclinations He that gives sober Advice to a Witty Droll must look to have every thing turn'd into Ridicule As if you Philosophers sayes Marcellinus did not love your Whores and your Guts as well as other people and then he tells you of such and such that were taken in the Manner We are all sick I must confess and it is not for sick Men to play the Physitians but it is yet Lawful for a Man in an Hospital to discourse of the Common Condition and Distempers of the Place He that should pretend to teach a Mad Man how to Speak Walk and behave himself Were not he the Madder Man of the two He that directs the Pilot makes him move the Helme order the Sayls so or so and make the best of a scant Wind after this or that manner And so should we do in our Counsels Do not tell me what a Man should do in Health or Poverty but shew me the way to be either Sound or Rich. Teach me to Master my Vices For 't is to no purpose so long as I am under their Government to tell me what I must do when I am clear of it In Case of an Avarice a little eas'd a Luxury Moderated a Temerity Restrain'd a Sluggish Humor quicken'd Precepts will then help us forward and tutor us how to behave our selves It is the first and the main Tye of a Soldier his Military Oath which is an Engagement upon him both of Religion and Honor In like manner he that pretends to a Happy Life must first lay a Foundation of Virtue as a Bond upon him to Live and Dye true to that Cause We do not find Felicity in the Veins of the Earth where we dig for Gold nor in the Bottom of the Sea where we fish for Pearl but in a pure and untainted Mind which if it were not Holy were not fit to entertain the Deity He that would be truly Happy must think his own Lot best and so live with men as considering that God sees him and so speak to God as if Men heard him CHAP. VI. No Felicity like Peace of Conscience A GOOD Conscience is the Testimony of a Good Life and the Reward of it This is it that fortifies the Mind against Fortune when a Man has gotten the Mastery of his Passions plac'd his Treasure and his Security within himself Learn'd to be Content with his Condition and that Death is no Evil in it self but only the End of Man He that has dedicated his Mind to Virtue and to the Good of Humane Society whereof he is a Member has consummated all that is either Profitable or Necessary for him to Know or Do toward the Establishment of his Peace Every Man has a Judge and a Witness within himself of all the Good and Ill that he Does which inspires us with great Thoughts and Administers to us wholesome Counsels We have a Veneration for all the VVorks of Nature the Heads of Rivers and the Springs of Medicinal Waters the Horrors of Groves and of Caves strike us with an Impression of Religion and VVorship To see a Man Fearless in Dangers untainted with Lusts Happy in Adversity Compos'd in a Tumult and Laughing at all those things which are generally either Coveted or Fear'd all Men must acknowledge that this can be nothing else but a Beam of Divinity that Influences a Mortal Body And this it is that carries us to the Disquisition of things Divine and Humane VVhat the State of the VVorld was before the Distribution of the First Matter into Parts what Power it was that drew Order out of that Confusion and gave Laws both to the whole and to every Particle thereof VVhat that space is beyond the World and whence proceed the several operations of Nature Shall any Man see the Glory and Order of the Universe so many scatter'd Parts and Qualities wrought into one Mass such a Medly of things which are yet Distinguish'd the World enlighten'd and the Disorders of it so wonderfully Regulated and Shall he not consider the Author and Disposer of all This and whither we our selves shall go when our Souls shall be deliver'd from the Slavery of our Flesh The whole Creation we see conformes to the Dictate of Providence and follows God both as a Governor and as a Guide A Great a Good and a Right Mind is a kind of Divinity lodg'd in Flesh and may be the Blessing of a Slave as well as of a Prince it came from Heaven and 〈◊〉 Heaven it must return and it is a kind of Heavenly Felicity which a pure and virtuous Mind enjoyes in some Degree even upon Earth Whereas Temples of Honor are but empty Names which probably owe their Beginning either to Ambition or to Violence I am strangely transported with the thoughts of Eternity Nay with the Belief of it for I have a profound Veneration for the Opinions of Great Men especially when they promise things so much to My satisfaction for they do Promise them though they do not Prove them In the Question of the Immortality of the Soul it goes very far with me a General Consent to the Opinion of a Future Reward and Punishment which Meditation raises me to the Contempt of this Life in Hope of a Better But still though we know that we have a Soul yet What that Soul is How and from Whence we are utterly Ignorant This only we understand that all the Good and Ill we do is under the Dominion of the Mind that a Clear Conscience States us in an Inviolable Peace And that the greatest Blessing in Nature is that which
Land but still disgusted with the Present The Town pleases us to day the Country to Morrow the Splendors of the Court at one time the Horrors of a Wilderness at another but all this while we carry our Plague about us for 't is not the place that we are weary of but our selves Nay our weakness extends to every thing for we are Impatient equally of Toyl and of Pleasure This Trotting of the Ring and only treading the same steps over and over again has made many a Man lay violent hands upon himself It must be the Change of the Mind not of the Climate that will remove the Heaviness of the Heart our Vices go along with us and we carry in our selves the Causes of our Disquiets There 's a great weight lies upon us and the bare shocking of it makes it the more Uneasie changing of Countries in this Case is not Travelling but Wandring We must keep on our Course if we would gain our Journeys end He that cannot live Happily any where will live happily no where What is a Man the better for Travelling as if his Cares could not find him out wherever he goes Is there any retiring from the Fear of Death or of Torments or from those Difficulties which beset a Man wherever he is It is only Philosophy that makes the Mind Invincible and places us out of the Reach of Fortune so that all her Arrows fall short of us This is it that reclaimes the Rage of our Lusts and sweetens the Anxiety of our Fears Frequent Changing of Places or Councels shewes an Instability of Mind and we must fix the Body before we can fix the Soul We can hardly stir abroad or look about us without encountring some thing or other that revives our Appetites As he that would cast off an unhappy Love avoids whatsoever may put him in Mind of the Person so he that would wholly deliver himself from his Beloved Lusts must shun all Objects that may put them in his head again and remind him of them We travel as Children run up and down after strange sights for Novelty not Profit we return neither the better nor the sounder nay and the very Agitation hurts us We learn to call Towns and Places by their Names and to tell Stories of Mountains and of Rivers but Had not our time been better spent in the Study of Wisdome and of Virtue In the Learning of what is already discover'd and in the Quest of things not yet found out If a Man break his Leg or strain his Ancle he sends presently for a Surgeon to set all right again and does not take Horse upon 't or put himself on Ship-board No more does the Change of place work upon our Disorder'd Minds than upon our Bodies It is not the Place I hope that makes either an Orator or a Physician Will any Man ask upon the Road Pray which is the way to Prudence to Justice to Temperance to Fortitude No matter whither any Man goes that carries his Affections along with him He that would make his Travels delightful must make himself a Temperate Companion A great Traveller was complaining That he was never the better for his Travels That 's very true said Socrates because you travell'd with your self Now had not he better have made himself another Man than to transport himself to another Place 'T is no matter what Manners we find any where so long as we carry our own But we have all of us a Natural Curiosity of seeing fine sights and of making new discoveries turning over Antiquities Learning the Customes of Nations c. We are never quiet To day we seek an Office to morrow we are sick on 't We divide our Lives betwixt a dislike of the Present and a desire of the Future but he that lives as he should orders himself so as neither to fear nor to wish for to morrow If it comes 't is welcome but if not there 's nothing lost for that which is to come is but the same over again that is past As Levity is a pernicious Enemy to Quiet so Pertinacity is a great one too The One Changes Nothing the Other Sticks to Nothing and which of the two is the worse may be a question It is many times seen that we beg earnestly for those things which if they were offer'd us we would refuse And it is but just to punish this Easiness of Asking with an equal Facility of Granting There are some things which we would be thought to desire which we are so far from desiring that we dread them I shall tire you sayes one in the Middle of a Tedious Story No pray be pleas'd to go on we cry though we wish'd his Tongue out at half way Nay we do not deal Candidly even with God himself We should say to our selves in these Cases This have I drawn upon my self I could never be quiet till I had gotten this Woman this Place this Estate this Honor and now see what 's come on 't ONE Sovereign Remedy against all Misfortunes is Constancy of Mind the Changing of Parties and Countenances looks as if a Man were driven with the Wind. Nothing can be above him that is above Fortune It is not Violence Reproach Contempt or whatever else from without that can make a Wise Man quit his Ground but he is Proof against all Calamities both great and small Only our Error is that what we cannot do our selves we think no body else can so that we judge of the Wise by the Measures of the Weak Place me among Princes or among Beggers The One shall not make me Proud nor the Other Asham'd I can take as sound a sleep in a Barn as in a Palace and a Bottle of Hay makes me as good a Lodging as a Bed of Down Should every day succeed to my wish it should not Transport me Nor would I think my self Miserable if I should not have one quiet hour in my whole Life I will not transport my Self with either Pain or Pleasure but yet for all that I could wish that I had an easier Game to play and that I were put rather to Moderate my Joyes than my Sorrows If I were an Imperial Prince I had rather Take than be Taken and yet I would bear the same Mind under the Chariot of my Conqueror that I had in my Own It is no great matter to trample upon those things that are most coveted or fear'd by the Common People There are those that will laugh upon the Wheel and cast themselves upon a Certain Death only upon a Transport of Love perhaps Anger Avarice or Revenge How much more then upon an Instinct of Virtue which is Invincible and Steady If a short Obstinacy of Mind can do this How much more shall a Compos'd and a Deliberate Virtue whose Force is equal and perpetual TO secure our selves in this World first we must aim at nothing that Men count worth the wrangling for Secondly We
without either prosperous or unhappy Causes of Disquiet What if a body might have all the Pleasures in the World for the Asking Who would so much Unmann Himself as by accepting of them to desert his Soul and become a Perpetual Slave to his Senses Those False and Miserable Palates that Judge of Meats by the Price and Difficulty not by the Healthfulness or Tast They Vomit that they may Eate and they Eate that they may fetch it up again They cross the Seas for Rarities and when they have swallow'd them they will not so much as give them time to digest Wheresoever Nature has plac'd Men she has provided them Aliment but we rather chuse to Irritate Hunger by expence than to Allay it at an Easier rate What is it that we plow the Seas for or Arme our selves against Men and Beasts To what end do we Toyl and Labour and pile bags upon bags We may enlarge our Fortunes but we cannot our Bodies so that it does but spill and run over whatsoever we can take more than we can hold Our Fore-fathers by the Force of whose Virtues we are now supported in our Vices liv'd every jote as well as we when they provided and dress'd their own Meat with their own Hands lodg'd upon the Ground and were not as yet come to the vanity of Gold and Gemms when they swore by their Earthen Gods and kept their Oath though they dy'd for 't Did not our Consuls live more Happily when they Cook'd their own Meat with those Victorious Hands that had conquer'd so many Enemies and won so many Laurels Did they not live more Happily I say than our Apicius that Corrupter of Youth and Plague of the Age he liv'd in who after he had spent a prodigious Fortune upon his Belly Poyson'd himself for fear of Starving when he had yet 250 000. Crowns in his Coffers Which may serve to shew us that it is the Mind and not the Summ that makes any Man Rich When Apicius with all this Treasure counted himself in a State of Beggery and took Poyson to avoid that Condition which another would have Pray'd for But Why do we call it Poyson which was the wholsomest Draught of his Life His daily Gluttony was Poyson rather both to himself and others His Ostentation of it was Intolerable and so was the Infinite Pains he took to mislead others by his Example who went even fast enough of themselves without driving IT is a shame for a Man to place his Felicity in those Entertainments and Appetites that are stronger in Brutes Do not Beasts eate with a better Stomach Have they not more Satisfaction in their Lusts And they have not only a quicker Relish of their Pleasures but they enjoy them without either Scandal or Remorse If Sensuality were Happiness Beasts were happier than Men but Humane Felicity is lodg'd in the Soul not in the Flesh. They that deliver themselves up to Luxury are still either tormented with too Little or oppress'd with too Much and equally miserable by being either deserted or over-whelm'd They are like Men in a dangerous Sea one while cast adry upon a Rock and another while swallowed up in a Whirlpool and all this from the Mistake of not distinguishing Good from Evil. The Huntsman that with much Labour and Hazard Takes a wild Beast runs as great a Risque afterwards in the Keeping of him for many times he tears out the Throte of his Master and 't is the same thing with Inordinate Pleasures The more in Number and the greater they are the more General and Absolute a Slave is the Servant of them Let the Common People pronounce him as Happy as they please he payes his Liberty for his Delights and sells himself for what he buyes LET any Man take a View of our Kitchins the Number of our Cooks and the Variety of our Meats Will he not wonder to see so much Provision made for one Belly We have as many Diseases as we have Cooks or Meats and the Service of the Appetite is the study now in Vogue To say nothing of our Traines of Laquayes and our Troops of Caterers and Sewers Good God! that ever one Belly should employ so many People How Nauseous and Fulsome are the Surfeits that follow these Excesses Simple Meats are out of Fashion and All are collected into One so that the Cook does the Office of the Stomach nay and of the Teeth too for the Meat looks as if it were chew'd before-hand Here 's the Luxury of all Tasts in one Dish and liker a Vomit than a Soup From these Compounded Dishes arise Compounded Diseases which require Compounded Medicines It is the same thing with our Minds that it is with our Tables Simple Vices are Curable by Simple Counsels but a General Dissolution of Manners is hardly overcome We are overrun with a Publick as well as with a Private Madness The Physitians of old understood little more than the Virtue of some Herbs to stop Blood or heal a Wound And their Firm and Healthful Bodies needed little more before they were corrupted by Luxury and Pleasure And when it â—…ame to That once their Business was not to Lay Hunger but to Provoke it by a thousand Inventions and Sauces That which was Aliment to a Craving Stomach is become a Burthen to a Full one From hence come Paleness trembling and worse Effects from Crudities than Famine A Weakness in the Joynts the Belly Stretch'd a Suffusion of Choler the Torpor of the Nerves and a Palpitation of the Heart To say nothing of Meagrims Torments of the Eyes and Ears Head-ach Gouts Scurvy several Sorts of Feavers and putrid Ulcers with other Diseases that are but the Punishment of Luxury So long as our Bodies were harden'd with Labor or tir'd with Exercise or Hunting our Food was Plain and Simple many Dishes have made many Diseases IT is an Ill thing for a Man not to know the Measure of his Stomach nor to consider that Men do many things in their Drink that they are asham'd of Sober Drunkenness being nothing else but a Voluntary Madness It emboldens Men to do all sorts of Mischief It both Irritates Wickedness and Discovers it It does not make Men Vitious but it shews them to be so It was in a Drunken Fit that Alexander kill'd Clytus It makes him that is Insolent Prouder Him that is Cruel Fiercer It takes away all Shame He that is Peevish breaks out Presently into Ill Words and Blows The Leacher without any regard to Decency or Scandal turns up his Whore in the Market-Place A Mans Tongue trips his Head runs round he Staggers in his Pace To say nothing of the Crudities and Diseases that follow upon this Distemper Consider the Publick Mischiefs it has done How many Warlike Nations and Strong Cities that have stood Invincible to Attaques and Sieges has Drunkenness overcome Is it not a great Honor to drink the Company Dead A Magnificent Virtue to Swallow more Wine
own Ruin for we are sure to get the better of Fortune if we do but struggle with her Fencers and Wrastlers we see what Blows and Bruises they endure not only for Honor but for Exercise If we turn our Backs once we are Routed and Pursu'd That Man only is Happy that Draws Good out of Evil that stands fast in his Judgment and Unmov'd with any External Violence or however so little mov'd that the Keenest Arrow in the Quiver of Fortune is but as the Prick of a Needle to him rather than a Wound And all her other Weapons fall upon him only as Hail upon the Roof of a House that Crackles and skips off again without any Damage to the Inhabitant A Generous and a Clear-sighted Young Man will take it for a Happiness to encounter Ill Fortune 'T is nothing for a Man to hold up his Head in a Calm but to maintain his Post when all others have quitted their Ground and there to stand upright where other Men are beaten Down this is Divine and Praise-worthy What Ill is there in Torments or in those things which we commonly accompt Grievous Crosses The great Evil is the want of Courage the Bowing and Submitting to them which can never happen to a Wise Man for he stands Upright under any Weight Nothing that is to be Born displeases him he knows his Strength and whatsoever may be Any Mans Lot he never complains of if it be his Own Nature he sayes deceives no Body she does not tell us whether our Children shall be Fair or Foul Wise or Foolish Good Subjects or Traitors nor whether our Fortune shall be Good or Bad. We must not Judge of a Man by his Ornaments but strip him of all the Advantages and the Impostures of Fortune nay of his very Body too and look into his Mind If he can see a naked Sword at his Eyes without so much as winking if he make it a thing Indifferent to him whether his Life go out at his Throat or at his Mouth if he can hear himself Sentenc'd to Torments or Exile and under the very hand of the Executioner say Thus to himself All This I am provided for and 't is no more than a Man that is to Suffer the Fate of Humanity This is the Temper of Mind that Speaks a Man Happy and without This all the Confluences of External Comforts signifie no more than the Personating of a King upon the Stage when the Curtain is drawn we are Players again Not that I pretend to except a Wise Man out of the Number of Men as if he had no sence of Pain but I reckon him as Compounded of Body and Soul The Body is Irrational and may be Gall'd Burnt Tortur'd but the Rational Part is Fearless Invincible and not to be shaken This is it that I reckon upon as the Supreme Good of Man which till it be perfected is but an Unsteady Agitation of Thought and in the Perfection an Immovable Stability It is not in our Contentions with Fortune as in those of the Theatre where we may throw down our Arms and pray for Quarter but here we must Dy Firm and Resolute There needs no Encouragement to those things which we are Inclin'd to by a Natural Instinct as the Preservation of our selves with Ease and Pleasure but if it comes to the Tryal of our Faith by Torments or of our Courage by Wounds these are Difficulties that we must be arm'd against by Philosophy and Precept And yet all This is no more than what we were born to and no matter of Wonder at all so that a Wise Man prepares himself for 't as expecting that whatsoever May be Will be My Body is Frail and Liable not only to the Impressions of Violence but to Afflictions also that Naturally Succeed our Pleasures Full Meales bring Crudities Whoring and Drinking make the Hands to Shake and the Knees to Tremble It is only the Surprize and Newness of the thing which makes that Misfortune Terrible which by Premeditation might be made Easie to us For that which some People make Light by Sufferance others do by Foresight Whatsoever is Necessary we must bear Patiently 'T is no new thing to Dy no new thing to Mourn and no new thing to be Merry again Must I be Poor I shall have Company In Banishment I 'll think my self Born there If I Dy I shall be no more Sick and 't is a thing I can do but Once LET us never wonder at any thing we are Borne to for no Man has reason to Complain where we are All in the same Condition He that scapes might have suffer'd and 't is but Equal to submit to the Law of Mortality We must undergo the Colds of Winter the Heats of Summer the Distempers of the Ayre and Diseases of the Body A Wild Beast meets us in One place and a Man that is more Brutal in another We are Here assaulted by Fire There by Water Demetrius was reserv'd by Providence for the Age he liv'd in to shew that neither the Times could Corrupt Him nor He Reform the People He was a Man of an Exact Judgment Steady to his Purpose and of a Strong Eloquence Not Finical in his Words but his Sence was Masculine and Vehement He was so Qualify'd in his Life and Discourse that ho serv'd both for an Example and a Reproche If Fortune should have offer'd that Man the Government and the Possession of the whole World upon Condition not to lay it down again I dare say he would have refus'd it And Thus have Expostulated the matter with you Why should you tempt a Freeman to put his shoulderâ—… under a Burthen or an Honest Man to pollute himself with the Dregs of Mankind Why do you offer me the Spoyle's of Princes and of Nations and the Prince not only of your Blood but of your Soules It is the part of a Great Mind to be Temperate in Prosperity Resolute in Adversity To Despise what the Vulgar Admire and to Prefer a Mediocrity to an Excess Was not Socrates oppress'd with Poverty Labor nay and the worst of Wars in his Own Family a Fierce and Turbulent Woman to his Wife Were not his Children Indocile and like their Mother After Seven and twenty years spent in Armes he fell under a slavery to the Thirty Tyrants and most of them his bitter Enemies He came at last to be Sentenc'd as a Violator of Religion a Corrupter of Youth and a Common Enemy to God and Man After This he was Emprison'd and put to Death by Poyson which was all so far from working upon his Mind that it never so much as alter'd his Countenance We are to bear Ill Accidents as Unkind Seasons Distempers or Diseases and Why may we not reckon the Actions of Wicked Men even among those Accidents Their Deliberations are not Counsels but Frauds Snares and Inordinate Motions of the Mind and they are never without a thousand Pretences and Occasions of doing a
Security If Death be at Any time to be Fear'd it is Allwayes to be Fear'd but the way never to Fear it is to be often thinking of it To what end is it to put off for a little while that which we cannot avoid He that Dyes does but follow him that is Dead Why are we then so long afraid of that which is so little a while a doing How miserable are those People that spend their Lives in the Dismal Apprehensions of Death For they are beset on all hands and every Minute in Dread of a surprize We must therefore look about us as if we were in an Enemies Country and Consider our Last hour not as the Punishment but as the Law of Nature The Fear of it is a Continual Palpitation of the Heart and he that overcomes That Terror shall never be troubled with any Other Life is a Navigation we are perpetually wallowing and dashing one against another Sometimes we suffer Shipwrack but we are Alwayes in Danger and in Expectation of it And what is it when it comes but either the End of a Journey or a Passage It is as great a Folly to Fear Death as to Fear Old Age. Nay as to Fear Life it self for he that would not Dye ought not to Live since Death is the Condition of Life Beside that it is a Madness to Fear a thing that is Certain for where there is no Doubt there is no place for Fear WE are still chiding of Fate and even those that exact the most Rigorous Justice betwixt Man and Man are yet themselves Unjust to Providence Why was such a One taken away in the Prime of his Years As if it were the Number of years that makes Death easie to us and not the Temper of the Mind He that would Live a little Longer to Day would be as loth to Dye a Hundred year Hence But which is more Reasonable for Us to obey Nature or for Nature to obey us Go we must at Last and no Matter how soon 'T is the Work of Fate to make us Live Long but 't is the Business of Virtue to make a short Life sufficient Life is to be measur'd by Action not by Time a Man may Dye Old at Thirty and Young at Fourscore Nay the One Lives after Death and the Other Perish'd before he Dy'd I look upon Age among the Effects of Chance How Long I shall Live is in the Power of Others but it is in my Own how Well The largest space of Time is to live till a Man is Wise. He that Dyes of Old Age does no more than go to Bed when he is weary Death is the Test of Life and it is that only which discovers what we are and distinguishes betwixt Ostentation and Virtue A Man may Dispute Cite Great Authorities Talk Learnedly Huff it out and yet be Rotten at Heart But let us Soberly attend our Business and since it is Uncertain When or Where we shall Dye let us look for Death in all Places and at all Times We can never Study that Point too much which we can never come to Experiment whether we know it or no. It is a Blessed thing to dispatch the Business of Life before we Dye and then to Expect Death in the Possession of a Happy Life He 's the Great Man that is willing to Dye when his Life is pleasant to him An Honest Life is not a Greater Good than an Honest Death How many Brave young Men by an Instinct of Nature are carry'd on to Great Actions and even to the Contempt of all Hazards 'T IS Childish to go out of the World Groning and Wailing as we came into 't Our Bodies must be thrown away as the Secondine that wraps up the Infant the other being only the Covering of the Soul We shall then discover the Secrets of Nature the Darkness shall be Discuss'd and our Souls Irradiated with Light and Glory A Glory without a Shadow a Glory that shall surround us and from whence we shall look down and see Day and Night beneath us If we cannot lift up our Eyes toward the Lamp of Heaven without dazling What shall we do when we come to behold the Divine Light in its Illustrious Original That Death which we so much dread and decline is not a Determination but the Intermission of a Life which will return again All those things that are the very Cause of Life are the way to Death We Fear it as we do Fame but it is a great Folly to Fear Words Some People are so impatient of Life that they are still wishing for Death but he that wishes to dye does not desire it Let us rather wait Gods Pleasure and Pray for Health and Life If we have a Mind to Live Why do we wish to dye If we have a Mind to dye we may do it without talking of it Men are a great deal more Resolute in the Article of Death it self than they are about the Circumstances of it For it gives a Man Courage to Consider that his Fate is Inevitable the slow Approches of death are the most Troublesome to us as we see many a Gladiator who upon his wounds will direct his Adversaries weapon to his very Heart though but Timorous perhaps in the Combat There are some that have not the Heart either to Live or Dy and that 's a Sad Case But this we are sure of The Fear of Death is a Continual Slavery as the Contempt of it is Certain Liberty CHAP. XXII Consolations against Death from the Providence and the Necessity of it THIS Life is only a Prelude to Eternity where we are to expect Another Original and Another State of Things We have no Prospect of Heaven Here but at a Distance Let us therefore expect our Last and Decretory Hour with Courage The Last I say to our Bodies but not to our Minds Our Luggage we must leave behind us and return as Naked Out of the World as we came Into 't The day which we fear as our Last is but the Birth-day of our Eternity and it is the only way to 't So that what we Fear as a Rock proves to be but a Port In many Cases to be Desir'd Never to be Refus'd and he that Dyes Young has only made a Quick Voyage on 't Some are Becalm'd Others cut it away before the Wind and we Live just as we Saile First we run our Childhood out of sight our Youth next and then our Middle Age After That follows Old Age and brings us to the Common End of Mankind It is a great Providence that we have more wayes Out of the World than we have Into 't Our Security stands upon a Point the very Article of Death It draws a great many Blessings into a very Narrow Compass And although the Fruit of it does not seem to extend to the Defunct yet the Difficulty of it is more than ballanc'd by the Contemplation of the Future Nay suppose that all the
Business of This World should be Forgotten or my Memory traduc'd What 's all this to me I have done my Duty Undoubtedly That which puts an End to all Other Evils cannot be a very great Evil it Self and yet it is no Easie thing for Flesh and Blood to despise Life What if Death comes If it does not stay with us why should we Fear it One Hangs himself for a Mistress Another Leaps the Garret Window to avoid a Cholerick Master a Third runs away and Stabs himself rather than he will be brought back again We see the Force even of our Infirmities and shall we not then do greater things for the Love of Virtue To suffer Death is but the Law of Nature and it is a great Comfort that it can be done but Once In the very Convulsions of it we have This Consolation that our Pain is near an end and that it frees us from all the Miseries of Life What it is we Know not and it were Rash to Condemn what we do not Understand But this we Presume either that we shall pass out of This into a Better Life where we shall Live with Tranquillity and Splendor in Diviner Mansions or else return to our First Principles free from the Sense of any Inconvenience There 's Nothing Immortal nor Many things Lasting but by Diverse wayes every thing comes to an End What an Arrogance is it then when the World it self stands Condemn'd to a Dissolution that Man alone should expect to live for Ever It is Unjust not to allow unto the Giver the Power of disposing of his Own Bounty and a Folly only to value the Present Death is as much a Debt as Mony and Life is but a Journey towards it Some dispatch it Sooner others Later but we must All have the same Period The Thunder-Bolt is undoubtedly Just that draws even from those that are stuck with it a Veneration A Great Soul takes no Delight in Staying with the Body it considers whence it Came and Knows whither it is to Go. The day will come that shall separate this Mixture of Soul and Body of Divine and Humane My Body I will leave where I found it My Soul I will restore to Heaven which would have been There already but for the Clog that keeps it down And beside How many Men have been the worse for longer Living that might have dy'd with Reputation if they had been sooner taken away How many Disappointments of Hopeful Youths that have prov'd Dissolute Men Over and above the Ruines Shipwracks Torments Prisons that attend Long Life A Blessing so deceiptful that if a Child were in Condition to Judge of it and at Liberty to Refuse it he would not take it WHAT Providence has made Necessary Humane Prudence should comply with Chearfully As there is a Necessity of Death so that Necessity is Equal and Invincible No Man has cause of Complaint for that which Every Man must suffer as well as himself When we should dye we Will not and when we would not we must But our Fate is Fixt and Unavoidable is the Decree Why do we then stand Trembling when the Time comes Why do we not as well lament that we did not Live a Thousand years agoe as that we shall not be alive a Thou sand years hence 'T is but travelling the Great Road and to the Place whither we must All go at Last 'T is but submitting to the Law of Nature and to That Lot which the whole World has suffer'd that is gone Before us and so must They too that are to Come After us Nay how many Thousands when our Time comes will Expire in the same Moment with us He that will not Follow shall be drawn by Force And Is it not much better now to do That willingly which we shall otherwise be made to do in spite of our Hearts The Sons of Mortal Parents must expect a Mortal Posterity Death is the End of Great and Small We are Born Helpless and expos'd to the Injuries of all Creatures and of all Weathers The very Necessaries of Life are Deadly to us We meet with our Fate in our Dishes in our Cups and in the very Ayr we Breathe Nay our very Birth is Inauspicious for we come into the World Weeping and in the Middle of our Designs while we are meditating great Matters and stretching of our Thoughts to After Ages Death cuts us off and our longest Date is only the Revolution of a few years One Man Dyes at the Table Another goes away in his Sleep a Third in his Mistress's Armes a Fourth is Stabb'd Another is Stung with an Adder or Crush'd with the Fall of a Horse We have several wayes to our End but the End it self which is Death is still the same Whether we dye by a Sword by a Halter by a Potion or by a Disease 't is all but Death A Child dies in the Swadling Clouts and an Old Man at a Hundred they are Both Mortal alike though the One goes sooner than the Other All that lies betwixt the Cradle and the Grave is Uncertain If we compute the Troubles the Life even of a Child is Long if the Swiftness of the Passage That of an Old Man is short The whole is slippery and Deceiptful and only Death Certain and yet all People Complain of That which never Deceiv'd any Man Senecio rais'd himself from a small Beginning to a Vast Fortune being very well skill'd in the Faculties both of Getting and of Keeping and either of them was sufficient for the doing of his Business He was a Man Infinitely Careful both of his Patrimony and of his Body He gave me a Mornings Visit sayes our Author and after that Visit he went away and spent the rest of the day with a Friend of his that was desperately Sick At Night he was Merry at Supper and seiz'd immediately after with a Squincy which dispatch'd him in a few hours This Man that had Mony at Use in all Places and in the very Course and Height of his Prosperity was thus Cut off How Foolish a thing is it then for a Man to flatter himself with Long Hopes and to Pretend to Dispose of the Future Nay the very Present slips through our Fingers and there is not that moment which we can call our Own How vain a thing is it for us to enter upon Projects and to say to our selves Well! I 'll go Build Purchase Discharge such Offices Settle my Affairs and then Retire We are all of us Born to the same Casualties All equally Frail and Uncertain of To morrow At the very Altar where we Pray for Life we Learn to Dy by seeing the Sacrifices Kill'd before us But there 's no Need of a Wound or Searching the Heart for 't when the Noose of a Cord or Smothering of a Pillow will do the Work All things have their Seasons they Begin they Encrease and they Dye The Heavens and the Earth grow Old and are appointed
Misfortunes into Blessings 'T is a sad Condition you 'l say for a Man to be barr'd the Freedome of his own Country And is not This the Case of Thousands that we meet every day in the Streets Some for Ambition Others to Negotiate or for Curiosity Delight Friendship Study Experience Luxury Vanity Discontent Some to exercise their Virtues Others their Vices and not a few to Prostitute either their Bodies or their Eloquence To pass now from pleasant Countryes into the worst of Islands Let them be never so barren or Rocky the People never so Barbarous or the Clime never so Intemperate he that is Banish'd thither shall find many Strangers to live there for their Pleasures The Mind of Man is Naturally Curious and Restless which is no wonder considering their Divine Original for Heavenly things are alwayes in Motion Witness the Stars and the Orbs which are perpetually Moving Rowling and Changing of Place according to the Law and Appointment of Nature But here are no Woods you 'l say no Rivers no Gold nor Pearle no Commodity for Traffick or Commerce nay hardly Provision enough to keep the Inhabitants from starving 'T is very Right here are no Palaces no Artificial Grotto's or Materials for Luxury and Excess but we lye under the Protection of Heaven and a Poor Cottage for a Retreat is more worth than the most Magnificent Temple when That Cottage is Consecrated by an Honest Man under the Guard of his Virtues Shall any Man think Banishment Grievous when he may take such Company along with him Nor is there any Banishment but yields enough for our Necessities and no Kingdom is sufficient for Superfluities It is the Mind that makes us Rich in a Desert and if the Body be but kept Alive the Soul Enjoyes all Spiritual Felicities in Abundance What signifies the being Banish'd from one Spot of Ground to Another to a Man that has his Thoughts Above and can look Forward and Backward and whereever he pleases and whereever he is he has the same Matter to work upon The Body is but the Prison or the Clog of the Mind subjected to Punishments Robberies Diseases but the Mind is Sacred and Spiritual and Lyable to no Violence Is it that a Man shall want Garments or Covering in Banishment The Body is as easily Cloth'd as Fed and Nature has made nothing Hard that is Necessary But if nothing will serve us but Rich Embroderies and Scarlet 't is none of Fortunes Fault that we are Poor but our Own Nay suppose a Man should have All restor'd him back again that he has Lost it will come to nothing for he will want more after That to satisfie his Desires than he did before to supply his Necessities Insatiable Desires are not so much a Thirst as a Disease TO come Lower now Where 's That People or Nation that have not chang'd their Place of Abode Some by the Fate of War Others have been cast by Tempests Shipwracks or want of Provisions upon unknown Coasts Some have been forc'd Abroad by Pestilence Sedition Earthquakes Surcharge of People at Home Some Travel to see the World Others for Commerce But in fine it is clear that upon some Reason or other the whole Race of Mankind have shifted their Quarters Chang'd their very Names as well as their Habitations Insomuch that we have lost the very Memorials of what they were All these Transportations of People what are they but Publick Banishments The very Founder of the Roman Empire was an Exile Briefly The whole World has been Transplanted and one Mutation treads upon the Heel of another That which one Man Desires turns another Mans Stomach and he that Proscribes me To Day shall himself be cast out To morrow We have however this Comfort in our Misfortune we have the same Nature the same Providence and we carry our Virtues along with us And This Blessing we owe to that Allmighty Power call it what you will either a God or an Incorporeal Reason a Divine Spirit or Fate and the Unchangeable Course of Causes and Effects It is however so order'd that nothing can be taken from us but what we can well spare and that which is most Magnificent and Valuable continues with us Wherever we go we have the Heavens over our Heads and no further from us than they were before and so long as we can entertain our Eyes and Thoughts with those Glories what matter is it what Ground we tread upon IN the Case of Pain or Sickness 't is only the Body that is affected It may take off the Speed of a Footman or Bind the Hands of a Cobler but the Mind is still at Liberty to Hear Learn Teach Advise and to do other Good Offices 'T is an Example of Publick Benefit a Man that is in Pain and Patient Virtue may shew it self as well in the Bed as in the Field and he that chearfully encounters the Terrors of Death and Corporal Anguish is as great a Man as he that most Generously hazards himself in a Battel A Disease 't is true barrs us of some Pleasures but Procures us others Drink is never so Grateful to us as in a Burning Feaver nor Meat as when we have fasted our selves Sharp and Hungry The Patient may be forbidden some Sensual Satisfaction but no Physitian will forbid us the Delight of the Mind Shall we call any Sick Man Miserable because he must give Over his Intemperance of Wine and Gluttony and betake himself to a Diet of more Sobriety and less Expence and abandon his Luxury which is the Distemper of the Mind as well as of the Body 'T is Troublesome I know at First to abstein from the Pleasures we have been us'd to and to endure Hunger and Thirst but in a Little time we lose the very Appetite and 't is no Trouble then to be without That which we do no not Desire In Diseases there are great Pains but if they be Long they Remit and give us some Intervals of Ease if short and violent either they dispatch Us or Consume Themselves so that either their Respites make them Tolerable or the Extremity makes them short So Merciful is Allmighty God to us that our Torments cannot be very Sharp and Lasting The Acutest Pains are those that Affect the Nerves but there 's this comfort in them too that they will quickly make us Stupid and Insensible In Cases of Extremity let us call to mind the most Eminent Instances of Patience and Courage and turn our Thoughts from our Afflictions to the Contemplation of Virtue Suppose it be the Stone the Gout nay the Rack it self how many have endur'd it without so much as a Grone or a Word speaking without so much as Asking for Relief or giving an Answer to a Question Nay they have laugh'd at the Tormenters upon the very Torture and provok'd them to New Experiments of their Cruelty which they have had still in Derision The Asthma I look upon as of all Diseases the
at my Pleasure What Towns shall be Advanc'd or Destroy'd who shall be Slaves or who Free depends upon my Will and yet in this Arbitrary Power of Acting without Controle I was never Transported to do any Cruel Thing either by Anger or Hot Blood in my Self or by the Contumacy Rashness or Provocations of other Men though sufficient to turn Mercy it self into Fury I was never mov'd by the Odious vanity of making my self Terrible by my Power that Accursed though Common Humor of Ostentation and Glory that haunts Imperious Natures My Sword has not only been bury'd in the Scabbard but in a manner Bound to the Peace and Tender even of the Cheapest Blood And where I find no other Motive to Compassion Humanity it self is Sufficient I have been alwayes Slow to Severity and Prone to Forgive and under as Strict a Guard to Observe the Laws as if I were Accomptable for the Breaking of them Some I pardon'd for their Youth Others for their Age. I spare one Man for his Dignity Another for his Humility and when I find no other matter to work upon I spare my self So that if God should at this Instant call me to an Accompt the whole World would agree to witness for me that I have not by any Force either Publick or Private either by my Self or by any Other defrauded the Common-wealth and the Reputation that I have ever sought for has been That which few Princes have Obtain'd the Conscience of my Proper Innocence And I have not lost my labor neither for no one Man was ever so Dear to another as I have made my self to the whole Body of my People Under such a Prince the Subject has nothing to wish for beyond what he enjoyes their Fears are Quieted and their Prayers heard and there is nothing can make their Felicity Greater unless to make it perpetual and there is no Liberty deny'd to the People but that of Destroying one another IT is the Interest of the People by the Consent of all Nations to run all hazards for the Safety of their Prince and by a Thousand Deaths to redeem that one Life upon which so many Millions depend Does not the whole Body serve the Mind though only the One is expos'd to the Eye and the Other not but Thin and Invisible the very seat of it being Uncertain Yet the Hands Feet and Eyes observe the Motions of it we Lye down Run about and Ramble as That Commands us If we be Covetous we Fish the Seas and Ransack the Earth for Treasure If Ambitious we burn our own Flesh with Scaevola we cast our selves into the Gulph with Curtius So would that vast Multitude of People which is Animated but with One Soul Govern'd by One Spirit and Mov'd by One Reason destroy it self with its own Strength if it were not supported by Wisdom and Government Wherefore it is for their Own Security that the People expose their Lives for their Prince as the very Bond that ties the Republick together the Vital Spirit of so many Thousands which would be nothing else but a Burthen and a Prey without a Governor When this Union comes once to be Dissolv'd All falls to Pieces for Empire and Obedience must Stand and Fall together It is no wonder then if a Prince be Dear to his People when the Community is wrapt up in him and the Good of Both as Inseparable as the Body and the Head the One for Strength and the othet Counsel for What signifies the Force of the Body without the Direction of the Understanding While the Prince watches his People Sleep his Labor Keeps Them at Ease and his Busines keeps them at Quiet The Natural Intent of Monarchy appears even from the very Discipline of Bees They assign to their Master the fairest Lodgings the Safest Place and His Office is only to see that the Rest perform their Duties When the King is Lost the whole Swarm Dissolves More than One they will not Admit and then they contend who shall have the Best They are of all Creatures the Fiercest for their Bigness and leave their Stings behind them in their Quarrels Only the King himself has None Intimating that Kings should neither be Vindictive nor Cruel Is it not a Shame after such an Example of Moderation in these Creatures that Men should be yet Intemperate It were well if they lost their Stings too in their Revenge as well as the Other that they might hurt but Once and do no Mischief by their Proxies It would tire them out if either they were to execute All with their Own hands or to wound Others at the Peril of their Own Lives A Prince should behave himself Generously in the Power which God has given him of Life and Death especially toward those that have been at any time his Equals for the One has his Revenge and the other his Punishment in 't He that stands Indebted for his Life has lost it but he that Receives his Life at the Foot of his Enemy Lives to the Honor of his Preserver He Lives the Lasting Monument of his Virtue whereas if he had been led in Triumph the Spectacle would have been quickly over Or what if he should restore him to his Kingdom again Would it not be an Ample Accession to his Honor to shew that he found nothing about the Conquer'd that was worthy of the Conqueror There 's nothing more Venerable than a Prince that does not Revenge an Injury He that is Gracious is Belov'd and Reverenc'd as a Common Father but a Tyrant stands in Fear and in Danger even of his Own Guards No Prince can be safe himself of whom all Others are Afraid for to spare None is to enrage All. 'T is an Error to imagine that any Man can be secure that suffers no body else to be so too How can any Man endure to lead an Uneasie Suspicious Anxious Life when he may be Safe if he Pleases and enjoy all the Blessings of Power together with the Prayers of his People Clemency Protects a Prince without a Guard there 's no need of Troops Castles or Fortifications Security on the One side is the Condition of Security on the Other and the Affections of the Subject are the most Invincible Fortress What can be Fairer than for a Prince to Live the Object of his Peoples Love to have the Vows of their Hearts as well as of their Lips and his Health and Sickness their Common Hopes and Fears There will be no Danger of Plots Nay on the Contrary Who would not frankly venture his Blood to serve Him under whose Government Justice Peace Modesty and Dignity Flourish Under whose Influence Men grow Rich and Happy and whom Men look upon with such Veneration as they would do upon the Immortal Gods if they were Capable of seeing them And as the True Representative of the Allmighty they consider him when he is Gracious and Bountiful and employes his Power to the Advantage of his
and Disappoint a Bodies Expectation These Errors are Commonly introduc'd by some person that is famous for his Eloquence Others follow him and so it passes into a Fashion And we are as much out in the Choice of the Matter as in That of our Words There are some Studies which are only Matter of Curiosity and Trial of Skill Others of Pleasure and of Use but still there are many things worth the Knowing perhaps that were not worth the Learning It is a huge deal of time that is spent in Cavilling about Words and Captious Disputations that work us up to an Edge and then Nothing comes on 't There are some Tricks of Wit like slight of hand which amount to no more than the Tying of Knots only to Loosen them again And it is the very Fallacy that pleases us for so soon as ever we know how they are done the Satisfaction is at an End He that does not understand these Sophismes is never the worse and he that does is never the better If a Man tells me that I have Hornes I can tell him again That I have None without Feeling on my Forehead Bion's Dilemma makes All Men to be Sacrilegious and yet at the same time maintains That there is no such thing as Sacrilege He that takes to himself sayes he what belongs to God Commits Sacrilege but all things belong to God Therefore he that applies any thing to his own Use is Sacrilegious On the other side the very Rifling of a Temple he makes to be No Sacrilege for 't is says he but the taking of something out of One place that belongs to God and removing of it to Another that belongs to him too The Fallacy lies in This that though all things Belong to him all things are not yet Dedicated to him There is no greater Enemy of Truth than overmuch Subtilty of Speculation Protagoras will have every thing Disputable and as much to be said for the One side as for the Other Nay he makes it another Question Whether every thing be Disputable or no. There are Others that make it a Science to prove That Man knows Nothing But the Former is the more Tolerable Error for the Other takes away the very Hope of Knowledge and it is better to know that which is Superfluous than nothing at all And yet it is a kind of Intemperance to desire to Know more than Enough for it makes Men Troublesome Talkative Impertinent Conceipted c. There is a Certain Hankering after Learning which if it be not put into a right way hinders and falls foul upon it self Wherefore the Burthen must be fitted to the Shoulders and no more than we are Able to Bear It is in a great Measure the Fault of our Tutors that teach their Disciples rather how to Dispute than how to Live And the Learner himself is also to blame for applying himself to the Emprovement rather of his Wit than of his Mind By which means Philosophy is now turn'd to Philology Put a Grammarian to Virgil he never heeds the Philosophy but the Verse Every Man takes Notes for his own Study In the same Meadow the Cow finds Grass the Dog starts a Hare and the Stork snaps a Lizzard Tully's de Republicâ finds work both for the Philosopher the Philologer and the Grammarian The Philosopher wonders how it was Possible to Speak so much against Iustice. The Philologer makes This Observation that Rome had Two Kings the One without a Father and the Other without a Mother for 't is a Question who was Servius his Mother and of Ancus his Father there is not so much as any Mention The Grammarian takes notice that Reapse is used for Reipsa and Sepse for Seipse And so every Man makes his Notes for his own Purpose These Fooleries apart let us learn to do good to Mankind and put our Knowledge into Action Our Danger is the being Mistaken in Things not in Words and in the Confounding of Good and Evil. So that our whole Life is but one continued Error and we live in Dependency upon to morrow There are a World of things to be Study'd and Learn'd and therefore we should Discharge the Mind of things Unnecessary to make way for Greater Matters The Business of the Schools is rather a Play than a Study and only to be done when we can do nothing else There are many People that frequent them only to Hear and not to Learn and they take Notes too not to reform their Manners but to pick up words which they Vent with as little Benefit to Others as they heard them to Themselves It costs us a great deal of time and other Mens Ears a great deal of trouble to purchase the Character of a Learned Man Wherefore I shall e'en content my self with the Courser Title of an Honest Man The worst of it is that there is a Vain and Idle Pleasure in 't which tempts us to squander away many a precious hour to very little Purpose We spend our selves upon Subtiltics which may perchance make us to be thought Learned but not Good Wisdom delights in openness and Simplicity in the Forming of our Lives rather than in the Niceties of the Schools which at best do but bring us Pleasure without Profit And in short the things which the Philosophers impose upon us with so much Pride and Vanity are little more than the same Lessons over again which they learn'd at School But some Authors have their Names up though their Discourses be mean enough they Dispute and Wrangle but they do not Edifie any farther than as they keep us from Ill doings or perhaps stop us in our speed to wickedness And there ought to be a Difference betwixt the Applauses of the Schools and of the Theatre the One being mov'd with every Popular Conceipt which does not at all Consist with the Dignity of the Other Whereas there are some Writings that Stir up generous Resolutions and do as it were inspire a Man with a new Soul They display the Blessings of a Happy Life and possess me at the same time with Admiration and with Hope They give me a Veneration for the Oracles of Antiquity and a Claim to them as to a Common Inheritance for they are the Treasure of Mankind and it must be my Duty to emprove the Stock and transmit it to Posterity And yet I do not love to hear a Man scite Zeno Cleanther Epicurus without some thing of his Own too What do I care for the bare Hearing of That which I may Read Not but that word of mouth makes a great Impression especially when they are the Speakers own Words But he that only recites Another Mans Words is no more to me than a Notary Beside that there 's an end of Invention if we rest upon what 's Invented already and he that only Follows Another is so far from finding out any thing New that he does not so much as look for 't I do not pretend all this
Matter but an Ambitious Vanity that has crept in at the Back Dore A Wise Man will keep himself Clear of all these Fooleries without disturbing Publick Customs or making himself a Gazing Stock to the People But Will This Secure him think you I can no more warrant it than that a Temperate Man shall have his Health But it is very Probable that it may A Philosopher has enough to do to stand right in the World let him be never so modest And his out-side shall be still like That of Other people let them be never So Unlike within His Garments shall be neither Rich nor Sordid No matter for Arms Motto's and other Curiosities upon his Plate But he shall not yet make it a Matter of Conscience to have no Plate at all He that likes an Earthen Vessel as well as a Silver has not a greater Mind then he that uses Plate and reckons it as Dirt. It is our Duty to Live Better than the Common-People but not in Opposition to them as if Philosophy were a Faction for by so Doing in stead of Reforming and gaining upon them we drive them away and when they find it unreasonable to Imitate us in All things they will follow us in Nothing Our Business must be to live according to Nature and to own the Sense of Outward things with other people Not to Torment the Body and with Exclamations against that which is Sweet and Cleanly to Delight in Nastiness and To use not only a Course but a Sluttish and Offensive Diet. Wisdom Preaches Temperance not Mortification and a Man may be a very Good Husband without being a Sloven He that Stears a Middle Course betwixt Virtue and Popularity That is to say betwixt Good Manners and Discretion shall gain both Approbation and Reverence But What if a Man Governs himself in his Cloths in his Diet in his Exercises as he ought to do It is not that his Garments his Meat and Drink or his Walking are things Simply Good but it is the Tenor of a Mans Life and the Conformity of it to Right Nature and Reason Philosophy obliges us to Humanity Society and the Ordinary Use of External things It is not a thing to please the People with or to entertain an Idle Hour but a Study for the Forming of the Mind and the Guidance of Humane Life And a Wise Man should also Live as he Discourses and in all Points be like himself And in the first place set a Value upon himself before he can pretend to become Valuable to Others As well our Good Deeds as our Evil come home to us at last He that is Charitable makes others so by his Example and finds the Comfort of That Charity when he wants it himself He that is Cruel seldom finds Mercy 'T is a hard Matter for a Man to be both Popular and Virtuous for he must be Like the People that would oblige them and the Kindness of Dishonest Men is not to be acquir'd by Honest Means He Lives by Reason not by Custome He shuns the very Conversation of the Intemperate and Ambitious He knows the Danger of Great Examples of Wickedness and that Publick Errors impose upon the World under the Authority of Presidents For they take for Granted that they are never out of the way so long as they keep the Road. We are beset with Dangers and therefore a Wise Man should have his Virtues in Continual Readiness to Encounter them Whether Poverty Loss of Friends Pain Sickness or the like He still maintains his Post Whereas a Fool is Surpriz'd at every thing and afraid of his Very Succors Either he makes no Resistance at all or else he does it by Halves He will neither take Advice from Others nor look to himself He reckons upon Philosophy as a thing not worth his time and if he can but get the Reputation of a Good Man among the Common People he takes no farther Care but Accompts that he has done his Duty EPIST. IX The Blessings of a Vigorous Mind in a Decay'd Body with some Pertinent Reflections of Seneca upon his Own Age. WHen I call Claranus my School-fellow I need not say any thing more of his Age having told you that He and I were Cotemporaries You would not Imagine how Green and Vigorous his Mind is and the perpetual Conflict that it has with his Body They were Naturally Ill-match'd unless to shew that a Generous Spirit may â—…e lodg'd under any shape He has Surmounted all Difficulties and from the Contempt of Himself is advanc'd to the Contempt of All things else When I consider him well methinks his Body appears to me as fair as his Mind If Nature could have brought the Soul Naked into the World perhaps she would have done it But yet she does a greater thing in Exalting that Soul above all Impediments of the Flesh. It is a great Happiness to preserve the Force of the Mind in the Decay of the Body and to see the Loss of Appetite More than Requited with the Love of Virtue But whether I Owe This Comfort to my Age or to Wisdome is the Question And whether if I Could any longer I Would not still do the same things over again which I Ought not to do If Age had no other Pleasure than This that it neither Cares for any thing nor stands in need of any thing it were a Great one to me to have left all my painful and troublesome Lusts Behind me But ' T is uneasie you 'll say to be alwayes in Fear of Death As if That Apprehension did not Concern a Young Man as well as an Old Or that Death only call'd us according to our Years I am however beholden to my Old Age that has now confin'd me to my Bed and put me out of Condition of doing those things any longer which I should not do The Less my Mind has to do with my Body the Better And if Age puts an end to my Desires and does the Business of Virtue there can be no Cause of Complaint nor can there be any Gentler End than to melt away in a kind of Dissolution Where Fire meets with Opposition and Matter to work upon it is Furious and Rages but where it finds no Fewel as in Old Age it goes out quietly for want of Nourishment Nor is the Body the Setled Habitation of the Mind but a Temporary Lodging which we are to leave whensoever the Master of the House pleases Neither does the Soul when it has left the Body any more Care what becomes of the Carkass and the several parts of it than a Man does for the shavings of his Beard under the hand of the Barber There is not any thing that Exposes a Man to more Vexation and Reproach than the overmuch Love of the Body For Sence neither looks Forward nor Backward but only upon the Present Nor does it judge of Good or Evil or Foresee Consequences which give a Connexion to the Order and Series of
Things and to the Unity of Life Not but that every Man has Naturally a Love for his Own Carkass as Poor People Love even their Own Beggerly Cottages they are Old Acquaintances and Loth to Part And I am not against the Indulging of it neither provided that I make not my Self a Slave to it for he that serves it has Many Masters Beside that we are in Continual Disorder One while with Gripes Pains in the Head Tooth-Ach Gout Stone Defluxions some time with too Much Blood other while with too Little And yet this Frail and Putrid Carkass of Ours values it self as if it were Immortal We put no Bounds to our Hopes our Avarice our Ambition The same Man is Vatinius to Day and Cato to Morrow This hour as Luxurious as Apicius and the next as Temperate as Tubero Now for a Mistriss by and by for a Wise Imperious This hour Servile the Next Thrifty and Prodigal Laborious and Voluptuous by turns But still the Goods or Ills of the Body do but Concern the Body which is Peevish Sour and Anxious without any effect upon a Well-Compos'd Mind I was the Other day at my Villa And Complaining of my Charge of Repairs My Bayliff told me ' T was none of his Fault for the House was Old and he had much adoe to keep it from falling upon his Head Well thought I and what am I my Self then that saw the laying of the First Stone In the Gardens I found the Trees as much out of Order the Boughs Knotted and Wither'd and their Bodies over-run with Moss This would not have been said I if you had Trench'd them and Water'd them as you should have done By my Soul Master sayes the poor Fellow I have done what I could But al ass they are all Dotards and Spent What am I then thought I to my self that planted all these Trees with my own Hands And then I come to bethink my Self that Age it self is not yet without its Pleasures if we did but know how to use them and that the Best Morsel is reserv'd for the Last Or at worst it is Equivalent to the Enjoying of Pleasures not to stand in need of any It is but yesterday methinks that I went to School But Time goes faster with an Old Man than with a Young Perhaps because he reckons more upon it There is hardly any Man so Old but he may hope for One day more yet and the Longest Life is but a Multiplication of Dayes nay of Hours nay of Moments Our Fate is Set and the First Breath we draw is but the First Step towards our Last One Cause depends upon another and the Course of All things Publick and Private is only a Long Connexion of Providential Appointments There is great Variety in our Lives but all Tends to the same Issue Nature may use her own Bodies as she Pleases but a Good Man has this Consolation that nothing Perishes that he can call his Own What Must be Shall be and that which is a Necessity to him that Struggles is little more than Choice to him that is Willing 'T is Bitter to be Forc'd to any thing but things are Easy when they are Comply'd with EPIST. X. Custome is a great Matter either in Good or Ill. We should check our Passions Betimes Involuntary Motions are Invincible THere is nothing so Hard but Custome makes it Easie to us There are some that never Laugh'd Others that Wholly abstain'd from Wine and Women and almost from Sleep Much use of a Coach makes us lose the Benefit of our Legs So that we must be Infirm to be in the Fashion and at last lose the very Faculty of Walking by Disusing it Some are so plung'd in Pleasures that they cannot Live without them And in This they are most Miserable that what was at First but Superfluous is Now become Necessary But their Infelicity seems to be then Consummate and Incurable when Sensuality has laid hold of the Judgment and Wickedness is become a Habit. Nay some there are that both Hate and Persecute Virtue and that 's the last Act of Desperation It is much Easier to Check our Passions in the Beginning than to stop them in their Course For if Reason could not hinder us at first they will go on in despite of us The Stoicks will not allow a Wise Man to have any Passions at all The Peripateticks Temper them but That Mediocrity is altogether False and Unprofitable And 't is all one as if they said That we may be a Little Mad or a Little Sick If we give any sort of Allowance to Sorrow Fear Desires Perturbations it will not be in our Power to restrain them They are fed from Abroad and will encrease with their Causes And if we yield never so little to them the least disorder works upon the whole Body It is not my Purpose all this while wholly to take away any thing that is either Necessary Beneficial or Delightful to Humane Life but to take That away which may be Vitious in it When I forbid you to desire any thing I am yet content that you may be Willing to have it So that I permit you the same things And those very Pleasures will have a Better Rellish too when they are enjoy'd without Anxiety and when you come to Command those Appetites which before you serv'd 'T is Natural you 'll say to weep for the Loss of a Friend to be Mov'd at the Sense of a Good or Ill Report and to be Sad in Adversity All this I 'll grant you and there is no Vice but something may be said for 't At First 't is Tractable and Modest but if we give it entrance we shall hardly get it out again As it goes on it gathers strength and becomes Quickly Ungovernable It cannot be deny'd but that all Affections flow from a Kind of Natural Principle and that it is our Duty to take Care of our selves But then it is our Duty also not to be over Indulgent Nature has mingled Pleasures even with things most Necessary Not that we should value them for their Own Sakes but to make those things which we cannot live without to be more Acceptable to us If we Esteem the Pleasure for it self it turns to Luxury It is not the Business of Nature to Raise Hunger or Thirst but to Extinguish it As there are some Natural Frailties that by Care and Industry may be Overcome So there are Others that are Invincible As for a Man that values not his Own Blood to Swoun at the Sight of another Mans. Involuntary Motions are Insuperable and Inevitable As the Staring of the Hair at Ill News Blushing at a Scurrilous Discourse Swiming of the head upon the sight of a Precipice c. Who can Read the Story of Clodius Expelling Cicero and Anthony's Killing of him the Cruelties of Marius and the Proscriptions of Sylla without being mov'd at it The Sound of a Trumpet the Picture of any thing that is
is a Frantick Error that Fears where it should Love and Rudely Invades where it should Reverentially Worship Death it self is no Evil at all but the Common Benefit and Right of Nature There is a great Difference betwixt those things which are Good in Common Opinion and those which are so in Truth and Effect The Former have the Name of Good things but not the Propriety They may Befall us but they do not Stick to us And they may be taken away without either Pain to us or Diminution We may Use them but not Trust in them For they are Only Deposited and they must and will Forsake us The only Treasure is That which Fortune has no Power over And the Greater it is the Less Envy it carries along with it Let our Vices Die before us and let us Discharge our Selves of our Dear-bought Pleasures that hurt us as well Past as to Come for they are follow'd with Repentance as well as our Sins There 's neither Substance in them nor Truth for a Man can never be weary of Truth but there 's a Satiety in Error The Former is alwayes the same but the Latter is Various and if a Man looks near it he may see through it Beside that the Possessions of a Wise Man are Maintain'd with Ease He has no need of Embassadors Armies and Castles but like God himself he does his Business without either Noise or Tumult Nay there is something so Venerable and Sacred in Virtue that if we do but meet with any thing like it the very Counterfeit Pleases us By the help of Philosophy the Soul gives the slip to the Body and Refreshes itself in Heaven Pleasures at best are Short-Liv'd but the Delights of Virtue are Secure and Perpetual Only we must Watch Labor and attend it our selves For 't is a Business not to be done by a Deputy Nor is it properly a Virtue to be a little better than the Worst Will any Man boast of his Eyes because they tell him that the Sun shines Neither is he presently a Good Man that thinks Ill of the Bad. For Wicked Men do That too and 't is perhaps the Greatest punishment of Sin the Displeasure that it gives to the Author of it The saddest Case of all is when we become Enamour'd of our Ruine and make Wickedness our Study When Vice has got a Reputation and when the Dissolute have lost the Only Good thing they had in their Excesses the Shame of Offending And yet the Lewedest part of our Corruptions is in Private which if any body had look'd on we should never have Committed Wherefore let us bear in our Minds the Idea of some great Person for whom we have an Awful Respect and his Authority will even Consecrate the very Secrets of our Souls and make us not only mend our Manners and purifie our very Thoughts but in good time render us Exemplary to Others and Venerable to our Selves If Scipio or Laelius were but in our Eye we should not dare to Transgress Why do we not make our selves then such persons as in whose Presence we dare not offend EPIST. XII We are Moved at the Novelty of things for want of Understanding the Reason of them THe whole Subject of Natural Philosophy falls under these Three Heads the Heavens the Air and the Earth The First Treats of the Nature of the Stars their Form and Magnitude The Substance of the Heavens whether Solid or not and whether they move of Themselves or be moved by any thing Else whether the Stars be Below them or fixed in their Orbs In what manner the Sun divides the Seasons of the Year and the like The Second Part Enquires into the Reason of things betwixt the Heavens and the Earth as Clouds Rain Snow Thunder and whatsoever the Air either Does or Suffers The Third handles matters that have a regard to the Earth as the difference of Soils Minerals Metalls Plants Groves c. But these are Considerations wholly forreign to our Purpose in the Nature of them though they may be of very Proper and Pertinent Application There is not any Man so Brutal and so Groveling upon the Earth but his Soul is rouz'd and carry'd up to higher Matters and Thoughts upon the Appearance of any New Light from Heaven What can be more worthy of Admiration than the Sun and the Stars in their Courses and Glory And yet so long as Nature goes on in her Ordinary way there 's no body takes Notice of them But when any thing falls out beyond Expectation and Custome what a Gazing Pointing and Questioning is there presently about it The People gather together and are at their Wits End not so much at the Importance of the Matter as at the Novelty Every Meteor sets People agog to know the Meaning of it and what it Portends and whether it be a Star or a Prodigy So that it is worth the while to enquire into the Nature and Philosophy of these Lights though not the business of this Place that by discovering the Reason we may overcome the Apprehension of them There are many things which we know to Be and yet we know nothing at all of what they Are. Is it not the Mind that Moves us and Restreins us But What that Ruling Power is we do no more understand than Where it is One will have it to be a Spirit Another will have it to be a Divine Power Some only a Subtile Ayr Others an Incorporeal Being and some again will have it to be only Blood and Heat Nay so far is the Mind from a Perfect understanding of Other things that it is still in search of it Self It is not long since we came to find out the Causes of Eclipses And farther Experience will bring more things to Light which are as yet in the Dark But one Age is not sufficient for so many Discoveries It must be the Work of Successions and Posterity and the time will come when we shall wonder that Mankind should be so long Ignorant of things that lay so open and so easie to be made Known Truth is offer'd to all But we must yet content our selves with what 's already found and leave some Truths to be retriv'd by After Ages The Exact truth of things is only known to God but it is yet Lawful for us to Enquire and to Conjecture though not with too much Confidence Nor yet alltogether without Hope In the First place however let us Learn things Necessary and if we have any time to spare we may apply it to Superfluities Why do we trouble our selves about things which Possibly May Happen and peradventure Not Let us rather provide against those Dangers that Watch us and lie in wait for us To suffer Shipwrack or to be Crush'd with the Ruin of a House these are great Misfortunes but they Seldom Happen The Deadly and the hourly danger that threatens Humane Life is from One Man to Another Other Calamities do Commonly give us Some Warning
asking and when we have no value any further for the Benefit we do commonly care as little for the Author People follow their Interest one Man is Grateful for his Convenience and another Man is Ungrateful for the same Reason SOME are Ungrateful to their Country and their own Country no less Ungrateful to others so that the Complaint of Ingratitude reaches all Men. Does not the Son wish for the death of his Father the Husband for that of his Wife c. But Who can look for Gratitude in an Age of so many Gaping and Craving Appetites where all People take and none give In an Age of License to all sorts of Vanity and Wickedness as Lust Gluttony Avarice Envy Ambition Sloth Insolence Levity Contumacy Fear Rashness Private Discords and Publick Evils Extravagant and Groundless wishes Vain Confidences Sickly Affections Shameless Impieties Rapine Authoriz'd and the Violation of all things Sacred and Profane Obligations are pursu'd with Sword and Poyson Benefits are turn'd into Crimes and that Blood most Seditiously Spilt for which every honest Man should expose his own Those that should be the Preservers of their Country are the Destroyers of it and 't is matter of dignity to trample upon the Government The Sword gives the Law and Mercenaries take up Armes against their Masters Among these turbulent and unruly Motions What hope is there of finding honesty or good Faith which is the quietest of all Virtues There is no more lively Image of humane life than that of a conquer'd City there 's neither Mercy Modesty nor Religion and if we forget our Lives we may well forget our Benefits The World abounds with Examples of Ungrateful Persons and no less with those of Ungrateful Governments Was not Catiline Ungrateful Whose Malice aim'd not only at the Mastering of his Country but at the total destruction of it by calling in an Inveterate and Vindictive Enemy from beyond the Alpes to wreak their long thirsted-for Revenge and to Sacrifice the Lives of as many noble Romans as might serve to answer and appease the Ghosts of the Slaughter'd Gaules Was not Marius Ungrateful that from a Common Soldier being raised up to a Consul not only gave the Word for Civil Blood-shed and Massacres but was himself the Sign for the Execution and every Man he met in the Streets to whom he did not stretch out his Right-hand was Murther'd And Was not Sylla Ungrateful too that when he had waded up to the Gates in Humane Blood carry'd the Outrage into the City and there most barbarously cut two entire Legions to pieces in a Corner not only after the Victory but most perfidiously after quarter given them Good God that ever any Man should not only scape with Impunity but receive a Reward for so horrid a Villany Was not Pompey Ungrateful too who after three Consulships three Triumphs and so many honors Usurp'd before his time split the Common-wealth into three Parts and brought it to such a pass that there was no hope of Safety but by Slavery Only forsooth to abate the Envy of his Power he took other Partners with him into the Government as if that which was not lawful for any one might have been allowable for more dividing and distributing the Provinces and breaking all into a Triumvirate reserving still two parts of the three in his own Family And Was not Caesar Ungrateful also though to give him his due he was a Man of his Word Merciful in his Victories and never kill'd any Man but with his Sword in his hand Let us therefore forgive one another Only one Word more now for the shame of Ungrateful Governments Was not Camillus banish'd Scipio dismiss'd and Cicero exil'd and plunder'd But What is all this to those that are so mad as to dispute even the goodness of Heaven which gives us all and expects nothing again but continues giving to the most Unthankful and Complaining CHAP. XX. There can be no Law against Ingratitude INGRATITUDE is so dangerous to it self and so detestable to other people that Nature one would think had sufficiently provided against it without need of any other Law For every Ungrateful Man is his own Enemy and it seems superfluous to compell a Man to be kind to himself and to follow his own Inclinations This of all wickedness imaginable is certainly the Vice which does the most divide and distract Humane Nature Without the Exercise and the Commerce of Mutual Offices we can be neither happy nor safe for it is only Society that secures us Take us one by one and we are a Prey even to Brutes as well as to one another Nature has brought us into the World naked and unarm'd we have not the Teeth or the Paws of Lyons or Bears to make our selves terrible but by the two Blessings of Reason and Union we secure and defend our selves against Violence and Fortune This it is that makes Man the Master of all other Creatures who otherwise were scarce a Match for the weakest of them This is it that comforts us in Sickness in Age in Misery in Pains and in the woâ—…st of Calamities Take away this Combination and Mankind is dissociated and falls to pieces 'T is true that there is no Law established against this abominable Vice but we cannot say yet that it scapes unpunish'd for a publick hatred is certainly the greatest of all Penalties over and above that we lose the most valuable Blessing of Life in the not bestowing and Receiving of Benefits If Ingratitude were to be punish'd by a Law it would discredit the Obligation for a Benefit is to be Given not Lent And if we have no Return at all there 's no just Cause of Complaint for Gratitude were no Virtue if there were any danger in being Ungrateful There are Halters I know Hooks and Gibbets provided for Homicide Poyson Sacrilege and Rebellion but Ingratitude here upon Earth is only punish'd in the Schools all further pains and Inflictions being wholly remitted to Divine Justice And if a Man may Judge of the Conscience by the Countenance the Ungrateful Man is never without a Canker at his heart his Minâ—… and Aspect is sad and sollicitous whereas the other is alwayes Chearful and Serene AS there are no Laws Extant against Ingratitude So is it utterly Impossible to contrive any that in all Circumstances shall reach it If it were Actionable there would not be Courts enough in the whole World to try the Causes in There can be no setting of a day for the requiting of Benefits as for the payment of Mony nor any Estimate upon the Benefits themselves but the whole matter rests in the Conscience of both parties And then there are so many degrees of it that the same Rule will never serve all Beside that to proportion it as the Benefit is greater or less will be both impracticable and without Reason One good Turn saves my Life another my Freedom or peradventure my very Soul How shall any Law
now suite a Punishment to an Ingratitude under these differing degrees It must not be said in Benefits as in Bonds Pay what you owe. How shall a Man pay Life Health Credit Security in kind There can be no set Rule to bound that infinite variety of Cases which are more properly the Subject of Humanity and Religion than of Law and Publick Justice There would be Disputes also about the Benefit it Self which must totally depend upon the Courtesie of the Judge for no Law Imaginable can set it forth One Man Gives me an Estate another only Lends me a Sword and that Sword preserves my Life Nay the very same thing several wayes done changes the Quality of the Obligation A Word a Tone a Look makes a great Alteration in the Case How shall we judge then and determine a Matter which does not depend upon the fact it self but upon the Force and Intention of it Some things are reputed Benefits not for their value but because we desire them And there are Offices of a much greater Value that we do not reckon upon at all If Ingratitude were Liable to a Law we must never give but before Witnesses which would overthrow the dignity of the Benefit And then the Punishment must either be equal where the Crimes are unequal or else it must be unrighteous So that Blood must answer for Blood He that is Ungrateful for my saving his Life must forfeit his own And What can be more Inhumane than that Benefits should conclude in Sanguinary Events A Man saves my Life and I am Ungrateful for it Shall I be punish'd in my purse That 's too little if it be less than the Benefit it is unjust and it must be Capital to be made equal to it There are moreover certain Priviledges granted to Parents that can never be reduc'd to a Common Rule Their Injuries may be Cognizable but not their Benefits The diversity of Cases is too Large and Intricate to be brought within the Prospect of a Law So that it is much more Equitable to punish none than to punish all alike What if a Man follows a good Office with an Injury Whether or no shall this quit scores or Who shall compare them and weigh tho one against the other There is another thing yet which perhaps we do not dream of Not one Man upon the face of the Earth would scape and yet every Man would expect to be his own Judge Once again We are all of us ungrateful and the Number does not only take away the Shame but gives Authority and Protection to the Wickedness IT is thought Reasonable by some that there should be a Law against Ingratitude for say they 'T is common for one City to upbraid another and to claim that of Posterity which was bestow'd upon their Ancestors But this is only clamor without Reason It is objected by others as a discouragement to good Offices if Men shall not be made answerable for them but I say on the other side that no Man would accept of a Benefit upon those termes He that Gives is prompted to 't by a goodness of Mind and the generosity of the Action is lessen'd by the Caution for it is his desire that the Receiver should please himself and owe no more than he thinks fit But What if this might occasion fewer Benefits so long as they would be franker nor is there any hurt in putting a Check upon Rashness and Profusion In Answer to this Men will be careful enough whom they oblige without a Law Nor is it possible for a Judge ever to set us right in 't or indeed any thing else but the Faith of the Receiver The honor of a Benefit is this way preserv'd which is otherwise prophan'd when it comes to be Mercenary and made matter of Contention We are e'en forward enough of our selves to wrangle without unnecessary Provocations It would be well I think if Moneys might pass upon the same Conditions with other Benefits and the payment remitted to the Conscience without formalizing upon Bills and Securities but Humane Wisdom has rather advis'd with Convenience than Virtue and chosen rather to force honesty than to expect it For every paltry Sum of Money there must be Bonds Witnesses Counter-parts Pawns c. which is no other than a shameful Confession of Fraud and Wickedness when more Credit is given to our Seals than to our Minds and Caution taken least he that has receiv'd the Money should deny it Were it not better now to be deceiv'd by some than to suspect all What 's the difference at this rate betwixt the Benefactor and an Usurer save only that in the Benefactors Case there is no body stands Bound The End SENECA'S MORALS OF A Happy Life OF ANGER and CLEMENCY ABSTRACTED By Ro. L'ESTRANGE PART II. LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Henry Brome at the Gun in St. Pauls Church-yard 1678. THE Contents OF A HAPPY LIFE Chap. I. OF a Happy Life and wherein it Consists Pag. 1. Chap. II. Humane Happiness is Founded upon Wisdome and Virtue and first of Wisdome p. 9. Chap. III. There can be no Happiness without Virtue p. 20. Chap. XVI Constancy of Mind gives a Man Reputation and makes him Happy in despite of all Misfortunes p. 200. Chap. XVII Our Happiness depends in a great Measure upon the Choice of our Company p. 220. Chap. XVIII The Blessings of Friendship p. 230. Chap. XIX He that would be Happy must take an Accompt of his Time p. 240. Chap. XX. Happy is the Man that may Chuse his own Business p. 256. Chap. XXI The Contempt of Death makes all the Miseries of Life easie to us p. 269 Chap. XXII Consolations against Death from the Providence and the Necessity of it p. 288 Chap. XXIII Against Immoderate Sorrow for the Death of Friends p. 299 Chap XXIV Consolations against Banishment and Bodily pains p. 312 Chap. XXV Poverty to a Wise Man is rather a Blessing than a Misfortune p. 321 SENECA OF A Happy Life CHAP. I. Of a Happy Life and wherein it consists THere is not any thing in this World perhaps that is more Talk'd of and less Understood then the Business of a Happy Life It is every Mans Wish and Design and yet not one of a thousand that knows wherein that Happiness consists We live however in a Blind and Eager pursuit of it and the more haste we make in a wrong way the farther we are from our Journeys â—…nd Let us therefore First consider What it is we would be at and Secondly Which is the readiest way to compass it If we be Right we shall find every day how much we improve but if we either follow the Cry or the Track of People that are out of the way we must expect to be misled and to consume our dayes in Wandring and Error Wherefore it highly concerns us to take along with us a skilful Guide For it is not in this as in other Voyages where the High-way