the liberty thereof the world doth yet bemoan this disaster the spoils of this shipwrack are yet seen and the States of Europe are but so many pieces which did compose the Body of that puissant Republique Ambition when confounded with virtue is guilty of more murders than Revenge and Choler though this passion pretend to be generous she is always stained with blood whatsoever delight she takes in pardoning her greatness is grounded upon the ruine of her enemies she is cause of more deaths than she procureth pardons and she is the loss of more innocents than safety of those that are guilty She astonisheth all the world when she is seen in the person of an Alexander And it seems Nature produced him to no other end than to teach us what ambition can do when assisted by fortune He ruined all Princes who would defend their own States he treated those as Enemies who refused to be his Subjects he could not permit an equal in any place through which he passed He complained of the Seas that stopt the current of his victories and wisht for a new world that he might conquer it If his vain-glory caused so many disorders his Choler committed no less ransack and if by the one he revenged himself of his Enemies he rid his hands of his Friends by the other the least suspitions encouraged these passions to revenge one indiscreet word provoked it an honest freedom set it a going and his Choler grew to be so nice as there was as much danger in doing well as in saying ill As he was possessed by all these violences so did he obey them he dipped his hands in the bloud of his Favourites he took upon him the office of a Hangman and that he might taste all the pleasures of revenge he himself would be the Minister thereof and with his own hands kill him who had saved his life But amongst all the cruelties whereunto his Choler oft did perswade him I know none more infamous than that which he exercised upon Innocent Calisthenes his condition was a Sanctuary to him and professing Phylosophy it seemed he ought not fear the fury of Alexander the very fault for which he was condemed was glorious and had it happened in the time of true Religion it would have passed for an eminent virtue for he defended the cause of his gods and was of opinion that Temples could not be built to his Prince without provoking the gods against him he guided himself so dexterously in so ticklish a business as that whilst he preserved the honour of Heaven he flattered Alexanders humour and by an admirable piece of cunning he accorded flattery with piety for if the reasons which Quintus Curtius alledgeth be true he represented unto the Macedonians that since men could not dispose of Crowns they ought not to dispose of Altars that since they made not Kings they ought not go about to make Gods and that when humane vanity would attribute unto it self that power she could not make use thereof till after the death of such as she would Deisie that to receive adoration from men one must keep far from any commerce with them lose his life to purchase a divinity That Alexander was yet necessary to them and that he ought not to mount into the Heavens till he had conquered all the Earth This short Oâ—aâ—ion was able to have obliged the most ambitious of mankind yet did it offend the vain-glory of this Prince and so far provoked his Choler as not many days after he caused this Philosopher to be put to death not allowing him liberty to defend himself This Murder drew upon him the hatred of all Greece and as Parmenio's death had exasperated all the Souldiers this of Calisthenes did much more all the Orators and these men who revenge themselves with their Tongue have spoke so oft of this excess as it is yet dishonour to him that did commit it All the praises that can be given to his gallant actions are darkned by the murder of Calisthenes And that I may make use of Seneca's eloquent words this irregular proceeding is Alexander's everlasting fault which neither his Fortune nor his Valour will ever be able to blot out For if a man shall say he defeated the Persians in three pitcht Battels another will say he slew Calisthenes If men put a valuation upon him for having overcome Darius the most puissant Monarch of the world they will blame him for having killed Calisthenes If men praise him for having carried the Bounds of his Empire to the utmost parts of the East they will add he was guilty of the death of Calisthenes If finally to end his Panegyrick a man shall say he hath stained the glory of as many Princes as preceded him another will reply his fault is greater than his valour and that all his actions of memory are sullied by Calisthenes his Blood This example ought to instruct and teach all Princes that if irregular Passions are maladies in private men they are Plagues and contagious diseases in publick Personages and that if well guided by Reason they may become glorious virtues they may by the tyranny of our senses degenerate into most infamous vices The THIRD DISCOURSE That there are no Passions which may not be changed into Virtues VVE have said in our former discourses that Passions are the seeds of Virtues that by having a care of husbanding them well their effects were very advantageous to us But proceeding on further my intention is in this discourse to teach Christians the secret how they may change them into Virtues and to take from them whatsoever they have of savage or monstrous This Metamorphosis is certainly very hard but not impossible and if we advise with nature she will furnish us with inventions for this wise Mother is continually working of strange alterations Her power never appears to be greater than when she alters the Elements or Metals and when she takes from them their former qualities that she may give them others more excellent and more noble But she observes therein an admirable method which well deserves consideration for though she be all-powerful and that holding the place of God she may act as a Soveraign and do what she pleaseth with the Elements or Metals yet doth she never use violence and she seemeth rather to accommodate her self to their interests than to her own inclinations she observeth their sympathies and worketh no alteration which is not agreeable unto them Thus we see she ratifies air to change it into fire and conduceth water to turn it into earth thus we observe she purifies silver to give it the tincture of Gold and labours whole ages to finish without violence this useful Metamorphosis Now as Morality is an imitation of Nature her chief care ought to be employed in observing the proprieties of our Passions and in converting them into virtues which are not contrary unto them for he that would go about to
agree to declare war unto us we must suffer them with respect and love them with so much ardency as we may with less danger for in this acceptation they have nothing of charm in them which may flatter or abuse us they are rather hateful than loving they cause in us rather a fear of God than love of our selves and by an happy effect they loosen us from the earth and raise us up to heaven this counsel comprehends all that Religion teacheth us touching the use of the creatures and whosoever shall upon occasions make use thereof will by experience find that they are never less dangerous than when most cruel and that they never oblige us more than when they punish us most severely The FOURTH DISCOURSE Of the Nature Properties and Effects of Love THose who judge of things by their appearances imagine there is nothing more contrary to man than Hatred and that since he takes his name from Humanity he should not tolerate a passion which breathes forth nothing but bloud and finds no delight but in murder Yet it is a part of his being and if he need love to fasten him unto objects which may preserve him he hath need of hatred to drive him from those that may destroy him These two motions are so natural to all Creatures as they subsist not but by the love of their like and by the hatred of their contraries The world had been ruined ere this had not the Elements whereof it is composed kept it in being by their oppositions and accords did not water by reason of the coldness thereof resist fire fire would ere this have reduced all into ashes and having no further fuel to nourish it it would have consumed it self our humors which are nothing but tempered elements preserve us by their natural Antipathies and Choler would have dried up our whole body were it not perpetually watered with flegm so as the great and little world consist only by the contrariety of their parts and if the author which hath produced them should appease their difference he would overthrow all his work which would cease to love one another if they ceased to hate their contraries What is seen in Nature is observed in Morality where the soul hath her inclinations and aversions to preserve and to defend her self to fasten her self to things she likes and to make her keep aloof off from what she likes not And had not God indued her with these two Passions she would be reduced to a necessity of suffering all the evils which assail her not having power to oppose them or hope to defeat them Hatred is then as requisite as Love we should have reason to complain of Nature if having given us inclinations to what is good she should not likewise have given us an aversion from the contrary and if she had not indued our souls with as much vigour to shun objects which are prejudicial to her as to draw near to these that are useful These two inclinations differ then only in their objects and to speak exactly we must say that Love and Hatred make but one and the same Passion which changes name according to their different uses which is called Love when it hath a liking to what is good and Hatred when it abhors what is evil Leaving here the first effect of Hatred which we have already considered we will now examine the second and will see what the nature properties and effects thereof are Hatred in her birth is nothing else but a meer aversion in us from whatsoever is contrary unto us 'T is an antipathy of our Appetite to a subject which displeaseth it 'T is the first impression which a true or an appearing evil makes in the lowest part of our soul 't is a wound which we have received from a displeasing object and it is the beginning of that motion which our Soul makes to keep aloof off or to defend it self from an enemy which pursues it She hath this in common with Love that she oft-times prevents Reason and shapes her self in our will not consulting with our judgment She takes offence at divers things which are not unpleasing in themselves and many times one and the same object causeth Hatred and Love in two different personages Sometimes it so falls out that according to the divers dispositions of our minds we like what formerly we have disliked that which did hurt us cures us and becomes the remedy of the evil which it caused she hath this of different with Love that she is much more sensible For Love is oft-times formed in our Souls before we are aware our friends must give us notice thereof and those whose company we keep must teach us that we do love we must reflect upon our selves to know this Passion in its birth and as it is extreamly delightful it wounds us so pleasingly as we do not feel the hurt till by process of time it become an incurable Ulcer But Hatred discovers it self as soon as it is conceived because it proceeds from an Object wherein we are only concern'd as it hurteth us it makes us suffer in its birth and from the time that it possesseth us it becomes our punishment It is as readily formed as Love a moment serves to produce it in our wills notwithstanding the little care we have to entertain it It disposeth its flames abroad into all the faculties of our Soul and as the most active of all the Elements it feeds upon whatever it encountereth but it hath this of misfortune that it is not so soon efaced as is Love when it hath once taken root in the heart there is no tearing of it out time which hath produced it preserves it and Philosophy is defective of sufficient reasons to cure a man who is affected with this troublesom malady Religion it self is never more troubled than when she oppugns so opinionated a passion the Son of God seems to have descended upon earth only to teach us to subdue Hatred and to pardon our enemies Neither did he oblige us to this duty till he had suffered death for his enemies he believed that to establish so strange a Doctrine it must be confirmed by his example authorized by his death and signed by his own bloud Thus did he declare war to a passion which hath this advantage over other Passions as that it endeth not with our self it is so dearly esteemed of by men as it is their sole entertainment It serves to divert them when they are displeased and though it corrode their Bowels it gives content to their heart I have heard of a Princess who after having lost her Kingdom and her Liberty found comfort in the hatred she bore her enemies and confessed she was not so much possess'd with sorrow for her past happiness as by her desire of revenge We see fathers who having their souls hanging upon their lips and who being no longer able to live do yet think how to continue
that the high enterprizes of Princes were no less the effects of this Passion than of Virtue he believed that all the disorders of our soul which contributed to Voluptuousness were not to be tamed but by Choler and that the concupiscible appetite would pervert Reason were it not withstood by the Irascible one would think to hear him speak that all great men are Cholerick that this Passion is not only the mark of a good Nature but of an excellent Courage and that a mans mind can conceive nothing of Generous if it be not a little irritated I believe with him that this resentment of our soul may be profitably employed in the service of Virtue when it is moderated by Reason and Grace but certainly it stands in more need of their guidance than do the rest and as it is extreamly violent so causeth it great disorders if it be not carefully suppress'd for let it have what inclination it pleaseth to Good it is too sudden to be regulated and though it seem to love Justice and Reason yet is yet too furious to be just or reasonable we should be undon were Choler as opinionated as it is sudden the earth would be but one desart if Passion were as lasting as it is hot Nature could not better shew her care she hath of our preservation than in giving narrow bounds to the wildest of our Passions and since the love she beareth us hath obliged her to make Monsters barren and to allot but short lives to the most furious Beasts she was bound to affix brevity to Choler and to allow a short term of time to so dangerous a Passion nor doth her short time of duration keep her from causing much mischief she employs to her utmost those moments which Nature hath given her and in a few hours commits many outrages for to boot that she troubles the minds of men that she changes their colour that she seems to play with their bloud making it sometimes withdraw it self to the Heart sometimes disperse it self over the Face that she sets the Eyes on fire and she fills the mouth with Threats and that she arms the Hands of as many as she meets withal she produceth much more strange effects in the world she hath since its birth changed the face thereof a thousand times there is no Province wherein she hath not committed some spoils nor is there any Kingdom which doth not bewail her violence those ruines which have formerly been the foundations of some goodly City are the remainders of Choler those Monarchies that whilome gave Laws to all the earth and which we know only by Story complain not so much of Fortune as of Choler those great Princes whose pride is reduced to ashes sigh in their graves and accuse only Choler for the loss of their Lives and ruine of their States some of them have been assassinated in their Beds others like Sacrifices offer'd up at the Altars some have unfortunately ended their days in the midst of their Armies when all their souldiers that environed them could not defend them from death others have lost their lives in their Thrones the Majesty that shines in the faces of Kings not being able to frighten their Murderers some have seen their own Children make attempts upon their persons others have seen their Bloud shed by the hands of their Slaves but not complaining of the Paricides they complain only of Choler and forgetting all their particular disasters they only condemn this Passion which is the plentiful and the unfortunate Spring-head thereof And certainly they have reason for their complaining since of all the disorders of our soul there is none more savage nor more irrational than this I know not why Aristotle imagined it was serviceable to reason and that it always moved as she did unless it be that it had a design to teach us that this Passion being more Ambitiouâ— than the rest would seem Rational in heâ— Excess and by an execrable attempt oblige Reason her Soveraign to defend heâ— Slaves injustice for she always seeks Excu ses for her faults though she shed humanâ— bloud though she offer up Innocents in sac crifice beat down whole Towns and burâ— their Inhabitants under their ruines shâ— will be thought to be Rational she some times knows well enough the vanity of heâ— resentments yet she without reason perseveres in them lest men should think she had no reason to begin Her injustice makes heâ— opinionated she grows hot upon design she will have her Excess to be an argumenâ— of her Injustice and all the world to imagine that she hath punished her enemieâ— justly because she hath punished them severely See then what she borrows of Reason and how much more insolent she is in other Passions which are blind in their unâ— ruliness and only offend their Soveraignâ— because they know not his Authority buâ— this Passion doth impudently abuse her and by a fearful tyranny employes her Soveraign to excuse her faults after having made use of her to commit them I therefore think Seneca had great reason to say that she is more faulty than the vices themselves and that she commits injustice whereof they are not guilty Avarice heapeth goods together and Choler dissipateth them the former only hurts her self and obligeth her heirs that are to succeed her but the latter hurts all the world and as if she were a publick contagion she puts divisions in Families divorceth Marriages and engageth Kingdoms in War Uncleanness seeks a shameful delight but such as only hurts the parties in fault Choler seeks an unjust one which is prejudicial to Innocents Envy as malicious as she is contents her self in wishing ill unto another she leaves the execution thereof to Fortune and remits to her the accomplishing of her desire but Choler is so impatient she cannot attend this blind Power but preventing the rigour thereof she takes delight in making men miserable In fine she is the cause of all evils and there is no fault committed wherein she hath not a hand there is nothing more obnoxious than Duels 't is Choler that entertains them there is nothing more cruel than Murder 't is Choler that adviseth to it there is nothing more fatal than war 't is Choler that causeth it when she reigns in a soul she stifles all other Passions and is so absolute in her tyranny as she turns Love into Hatred and Pity into Fury for there have been Lovers who in the height of their Choler have buried the same Dagger in their own bosoms which they had just before plunged in their Mistresses bosom committing two real murders to revenge one imaginary injury Avaritious men have been seen to betray their own inclinations to content their Choler throwing all their riches into the water or into the fire to obey the impetuosity thereof Ambitious have been known who have refused proffer'd Honours trampled Diadems under foot because Choler which wholly possess'd their