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The Anatomy of Melancholy 4 of 4. Robert Burton, 1621. A Puke(TM) Audiobook
THE THIRD PARTITION, LOVE-MELANCHOLY.
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THE FIRST SECTION, MEMBER, SUBSECTION.
The Preface.
There will not be wanting, I presume, one or other that will much discommend some part of this treatise of love-melancholy, and object, which Erasmus in his preface to Sir Thomas More suspects of him) "that it is too light for a divine, too comical a subject to speak of love symptoms, too fantastical, and fit alone for a wanton poet, a feeling young lovesick gallant, an effeminate courtier, or some such idle person.” And tis true they say: for by the naughtiness of men it is so come to pass, as Caussinus observes, that the voice of love is suspicious to the chaste ears, and despised, the very name of love is odious to chaste ears; and therefore some again, out of an affected gravity, will dislike all for the name's sake before they read a word; dissembling with him in Petronius, and seem to be angry that their ears are violated with such obscene speeches, that so they may be admired for grave philosophers and staid carriage. They cannot abide to hear talk of love toys, or amorous discourses, averse in their outward actions with face, gesture, and eyes, and yet in their thoughts they are all out as bad, if not worse than others.
“In Brutus' presence Lucretia blushed and laid my book aside; when he retired, she took it up again and read.”
But let these cavillers and counterfeit Catos know, that as the Lord John answered the Queen in that Italian Guazzo, an old, a grave discreet man is fittest to discourse of love matters, because he hath likely more experience, observed more, hath a more staid judgment, can better discern, resolve, discuss, advise, give better cautions, and more solid precepts, better inform his hearers in such a subject, and by reason of his riper years sooner diverge. Besides, there is nothing to be feared in this voice of love, there is nothing here to be excepted at; love is a species of melancholy, and a necessary part of this my treatise, which I may not omit; the work undertaken was to be served: so Jacobus Mysillius pleads for himself in his translation of Lucian's dialogues, and so do I; I must and will perform my task. And that short excuse of Mercerus, for his edition of Aristaenetus shall be mine, "If I have spent my time ill to write, let not them be so idle as to read." But I am persuaded it is not so ill spent, I ought not to excuse or repent myself of this subject; on which many grave and worthy men have written whole volumes, Plato, Plutarch, Plotinus, Maximus, Tyrius, Alcinous, Avicenna, Leo the Hebrew in three large dialogues, Xenophon symposium. Theophrastus, if we may believe Athenaeus, Picus Mirandula, Marius, Aequicola, both in Italian, Kornmannus de linea Amoris, book three, Petrus Godefridus hath handled in three books, P. Haedus, and which almost every physician, as Arnoldus, Villanovanus, Valleriola, Aelian Montaltus and Laurentius in their treatises of melancholy, Jason Pratensis, Valescus of Taranta, Gordonius, Hercules of Saxony, Savanarola, Langius, and more, have treated separately, and in their works. I excuse myself, therefore, with Peter Godefridus, Valleriola, Ficinus, and in Langius' words. Cadmus Milesius writes fourteen books of love, "and why should I be ashamed to write an epistle in favor of young men, of this subject?" A company of stern readers dislike the second of the Aeneids, and Virgil's gravity, for inserting such amorous passions in an heroic subject; but Servius, his commentator, justly vindicates the poet's worth, wisdom, and discretion in doing as he did. Castalius would not have young men read the Canticles, because to his thinking it was too light and amorous a tract, a ballad of ballads, as our old English translation hath it. He might as well forbid the reading of Genesis, because of the loves of Jacob and Rachael, the stories of Shechem and Dinah, Judah and Tamar; reject the Book of Numbers, for the fornications of the people of Israel with the Moabites; that of Judges for Samson and Dalilah's embracings; that of the Kings, for David and Beersheba's adulteries, the incest of Ammon and Tamar, Solomon's concubines, and more. The stories of Esther, Judith, Susanna, and many such. Dicearchus, and some others, carp at Plato's majesty, that he would vouchsafe to indite such love toys: amongst the rest, for that dalliance with Agatho,
While I was giving Agathon sweet things, I held my soul in my lips;
For the patient was hurrying as if he were going away.
For my part, says Maximus Tyrius, a great Platonist himself, not only admires me, but stuns him, I do not only admire, but stand amazed to read, that Plato and Socrates both should expel Homer from their city, because he writes of such light and wanton subjects, Which brings Juno with Jove in Ida reclining, Covered by an immortal cloud, Vulcan's net. Mars and Venus' fopperies before all the gods, because Apollo fled, when he was persecuted by Achilles, the gods were wounded and ran whining away, as Mars that roared louder than Stentor, and covered nine acres of ground with his fall ; Vulcan was a summer's day falling down from heaven, and in Lemnos Isle brake his leg, and more, with such ridiculous passages; when, as both Socrates and Plato, by his testimony, write lighter themselves: for what is so distant, as he follows it, than a lover from a temperate man, an admirer of forms from a madman, what can be more absurd than for grave philosophers to treat of such fooleries, to admire Autiloquus, Alcibiades, for their beauties as they did, to run after, to gaze, to dote on fair Phaedrus, delicate Agatho, young Lysis, fine Charmides, what befits a Philosopher? Doth this become grave philosophers? To this peradventure Callias, Thrasimachus, Polus, Aristophanes, or some of his adversaries and emulators might object; but neither they nor Anytus and Melitus his bitter enemies, that condemned him for teaching Critias to tyrannise, his impiety for swearing by dogs and plain trees, for his juggling sophistry, and more, never so much as upbraided him with impure love, writing or speaking of that subject; and therefore without question, as he concludes, both Socrates and Plato in this are justly to be excused. But suppose they had been a little overlooked, should divine Plato be defamed? no, rather as he said of Cato's drunkenness, if Cato were drunk, it should be no vice at all to be drunk. They reprove Plato then, but without cause, as and more Ficinus pleads, "for all love is honest and good, and they are worthy to be loved that speak well of love." Being to speak of this admirable affection of love, saith Valleriola, “there lies open a vast and philosophical field to my discourse, by which many lovers become mad; let me leave my more serious meditations, wander in these philosophical fields, and look into those pleasant groves of the Muses, where with unspeakable variety of flowers, we may make garlands to ourselves, not to adorn us only, but with their pleasant smell and juice to nourish our souls, and fill our minds desirous of knowledge," and more. After a harsh and unpleasing discourse of melancholy, which hath hitherto molested your patience, and tired the author, give him leave with Godefridus the lawyer, and Laurentius, chapter 5, to recreate himself in this kind after his laborious studies, "since so many grave divines and worthy men have without offense to manners, to help themselves and others, voluntarily written of it." Heliodorus, a bishop, penned a love story of Theagines and Chariclea, and when some Catos of his time reproached him for it, chose rather, says Nicephorus, to leave his bishopric than his book. Aeneas Sylvius, an ancient divine, and past forty years of age, as he confesseth himself, after Pope Pius Secundus, indited that wanton history of Euryalus and Lucretia. And how many superintendents of learning could I reckon up that have written of light fantastical subjects?
Beroaldus, Erasmus, Alpheratius, twenty-four times printed in Spanish, and more. Give me leave then to refresh my muse a little, and my weary readers, to expatiate in this delightful field, this field of delights, as Fonseca terms it, to season a surly discourse with a more pleasing aspersion of love matters: Edulcare it suits life, as the poet invites us, cares for toys, and more, tis good to sweeten our life with some pleasing toys to relish it, and as Pliny tells us, a large part of the students seek amenities, most of our students love such pleasant subjects. Although Macrobius teaches us otherwise, "that those old sages banished all such light tracts from their studies, to nurse's cradles, to please only the ear;" yet out of Apuleius I will oppose as honorable patrons, Solon, Plato, Xenophon, Adrian, and more. that as highly approve of these treatises. On the other side I think they are not to be disliked, they are not so unfit. I will not peremptorily say as one did I will tell you such pretty stories, that foul befall him that is not pleased with them; Nor will I say that I have heard those things which are of use to you, and remember them for pleasure, with that confidence, as Beroaldus doth his narrations on Propertius. I will not expert or hope for that approbation, which Lipsius gives to his Epictetus; I do more when I read; always as new, and when I have repeated, to be repeated, the more I read, the more shall I covet to read. I will not press you with my pamphlets, or beg attention, but if you like them you may. Pliny holds it expedient, and most fit, to season severity with delight even in writings, to season our works with some pleasant discourse; Synesius approves of it, though he may play in games; and there be those, without question, that are more willing to read such toys, than I am to write: “Let me not live,” says Aretine's Antonia, “If I had not rather hear thy discourse, than see a play?” No doubt but there be more of her mind, ever have been, ever will be, as Jerome bears me witness. A far greater part had rather read Apuleius than Plato: Tully himself confesseth he could not understand Plato's Timaeus, and therefore cared less for it: but every schoolboy hath that famous testament of Grunnius Corocotta Porcellus at his fingers' ends. The comic poet.
“This he took to be his only business, that the plays which he wrote should please the people.”
made this his only care and sole study to please the people, tickle the ear, and to delight; but my earnest intent is as much to profit as to please; not so much to please the people, as to help the people, and these my writings, I hope, shall take like gilded pills, which are so composed as well to tempt the appetite, and deceive the palate, as to help and medicinally work upon the whole body my lines shall not only recreate, but rectify the mind. I think I have said enough; if not, let him that is otherwise minded, remember that of Maudarensis, "he was in his life a philosopher", as Ausonius apologizeth for him, "in his epigrams a lover, in his precepts most severe; in his letter to Caerelia, a wanton." Annianus, Sulpicius, Evemus, Menander, and many old poets besides, did itch in writing, wrote Fescennines, Atellans, and lascivious songs; happy matter; yet they had in their manners censure and severity, they were chaste, severe, and upright livers.
“The poet himself should be chaste and pious, but his verses need not imitate him in these respects; they may therefore contain wit and humour.”
I am of Catullus' opinion, and make the same apology on my own behalf; This, too, that I write, generally depends on the opinion and authority of others; nor perhaps I myself am mad, but I follow those who are mad. And it is granted that this drives me mad; We have all gone mad at one time, and I certainly think I am going mad at one time, and he, and he, and I, of course. I am a man, I think nothing alien to the human being from me: And which he urges for himself, accused of the like fault, I as justly plead, The page is lewd to us, life is a trial. However my lines err, my life is honest, life is shameful, my muse is jocular. But I presume I need no such apologies, I need not, as Socrates in Plato, cover his face when he spoke of love, or blush and hide mine eyes, as Pallas did in her hood, when she was consulted by Jupiter about Mercury's marriage, that, when a virgin is consulted upon marriage, it is no such lascivious, obscene, or wanton discourse; I have not offended your chaster ears with anything that is here written, as many French and Italian authors in their modern language of late have done, nay some of our Latin pontifical writers, Zanches, Asorius, Abulensis, Burchardus, and more, whom Rivet accuseth to be more lascivious than Virgil in Priapeiis, Petronius in Catalectis, Aristophanes in Lycistratae, Martialis, or any other pagan profane writer, who so atrociously, one notes, sinned in this manner that many ingenious writings were staged obscenities for the sake of chastity their minds are abhorred. Tis not scurrile this, but chaste, honest, most part serious, and even of religion itself. "Incensed"m as he said, "with the love of finding love, we have sought it, and found it." More yet, I have augmented and added something to this light treatise if light, which was not in the former editions, I am not ashamed to confess it, with a good author, that most people demanded that this subject be extended and enriched and being defeated by their importunity, I brought my mind, however resisting, to such an extent that I took up the pen in my hand for the sixth time, and girded myself with writing far from my studies and profession, having spared some hours in the meantime from my serious occupations, and dedicating them as a sort of game and recreation;
“I am compelled to reverse my sails, and retrace my former course.”
Although I was not unaware that perhaps new detractors would not be lacking in these new interpolations of mine. And thus much I have thought good to say by way of preface, lest any man, which Godefridus feared in his book, should blame in me lightness, wantonness, rashness, in speaking of love's causes, enticements, symptoms, remedies, lawful and unlawful loves, and lust itself, I speak it only to tax and deter others from it, not to teach, but to show the vanities and fopperies of this heroic or Herculean love, and to apply remedies unto it. I will treat of this with like liberty as of the rest.
“What I tell you, do you tell to the multitude, and make this treatise gossip like an old woman.”
Condemn me not a good reader then, or censure me hardly, if some part of this treatise to thy thinking as yet be too light; but consider better of it; Everything is clean, a naked man to a modest woman is no otherwise than a picture, as Augusta Livia truly said, and a bad mind, a bad mind, tis as tis taken. If in thy censure it be too light, I advise thee, as Lipsius did his reader for some places of Plautus, to pass over these rocks as the Sirens, if they like thee not, let them pass; or oppose that which is good to that which is bad, and therefore reject not all. For to invert that verse of Martial, and with Hierom Wolfius to apply it to my present purpose, there are evils, there are some mediocre ones, there are more good things; some are good, some bad, some are indifferent. I say further with him yet, I have inserted, I am not burdened to write down some light and funny things, some from the theaters, from the streets, even from restaurants, some things more homely, light, or comical, litans graces, and more, which I would request every man to interpret to the best, and as Julius Caesar Scaliger besought Cardan. I beseech thee, good reader, not to mistake me, or misconstrue what is here written; By the Muses and the Charites, and all the deities of the poets, I beseech thee, kindly reader, take me not wrong. Tis a comical subject; in sober sadness I crave pardon of what is lost, and desire thee to suspend thy judgment, wink at small faults, or to be silent at least; but if thou likest, speak well of it, and wish me good success. Arethusa grant me this last labour.
I am resolved however, whether you like it or not, to boldly enter the stadium, in the Olympics, with those Aeliensian wrestlers in Philostratus, boldly to show myself in this common stage, and in this tragicomedy of love, to act several parts, some satirically, some comically, some in a mixed tone, as the subject I have in hand gives occasion, and the present scene shall require, or offer itself.
Subsection two. Love's Beginning, Object, Definition, Division.
"Love's limits are ample and great, and a spacious walk it hath, beset with thorns," and for that cause, which Scaliger reprehends in Cardan, "not lightly to be passed over." Lest I incur the same censure, I will examine all the kinds of love, its nature, beginning, difference, objects, how it is honest or dishonest, a virtue or vice, a natural passion, or a disease, its power and effects, how far it extends: of which, although something has been said in the first partition, in those sections of disturbances, "for love and hatred are the first and most common passions, from which all the rest arise, and are attendant ," as Picolomineus holds, or as Nicholas Caussinus, the first mobile of all other affections, which carry them all about them, I will now more copiously dilate, through all his parts and several branches, that so it may better appear what love is, and how it varies with the objects, how in defect, or, which is most ordinary and common, immoderate, and in excess, causes melancholy.
Love universally taken, is defined to be a desire, as a word of more ample signification: and though Leo the Hebrew, the most copious writer of this subject, in his third dialogue make no difference, yet in his first he distinguishes them again, and you define love by giving up. “Love is a voluntary affection, and desire to enjoy that which is good. Desire wishes, love enjoys; the end of the one is the beginning of the other; that which we love is present; that which we leave is absent.” "It is worth the labor," says Plotinus, "to consider the well of love, whether it be a god or a devil, or passion of the mind, or partly god, partly devil, partly passion." He concludes love to participate of all three, to arise from desire of that which is beautiful and fair, and defines it to be "an action of the mind desiring that which is good." Plato calls it the great devil, for its vehemency, and sovereignty over all other passions, and defines it an appetite, "by which we desire some good to be present." Ficinus in his commentary adds the word fair to this definition. Love is a desire of enjoying that which is good and fair. Austin expands this common definition, and will have love to be a delight of the heart, "for something which we seek to win, or joy to have, coveting by desire, resting in joy." Scaliger taxeth these former definitions, and will not have love to be defined by desire or appetite; "for when we enjoy the things we desire, there remains no more appetite:" as he defines it, "Love is an affection by which we are either united to the thing we love, or perpetuate our union;" which agrees in part with Leo Hebreus.
Now this love varies as its object varies, which is always good, amiable, fair, gracious, and pleasant. "Desire all things that which is good," as we are taught in the Ethics, or at least that which to them seems to be good; for what do you mean by evil, as Austin well brings, tell me? I think nothing in all actions; thou wilt wish no harm, I suppose, no ill in all thine actions, thoughts or desires; thou wilt not have bad corn, bad soil, a naughty tree, but all good; a good servant, a good horse, a good son, a good friend, a good neighbor, a good wife. From this goodness comes beauty; from beauty, grace, and comeliness, which result as so many rays from their good parts, make us to love, and so to covet it: for were it not pleasing and gracious in our eyes, we should not seek. "No man loves", saith Aristotle, "but he that was first delighted with comeliness and beauty." As this fair object varies, so doth our love; for as Proclus holds, Every fair thing is amiable, and what we love is fair and gracious in our eyes, or at least we do so apprehend and still esteem it. "Amiableness is the object of love, the scope and end is to obtain it, for whose sake we love, and which our mind covets to enjoy." And it seems to us especially fair and good; for good, fair, and unity, cannot be separated. Beauty shines, says Plato, and by reason of its splendor and shining causes admiration; and the fairer the object is, the more eagerly it is sought. For as the same Plato defines it, “Beauty is a lively, shining or glittering brightness, resulting from effused good, by ideas, seeds, reasons, shadows, stirring up our minds, that by this good they may be united and make one." Others will have beauty to be the perfection of the whole composition, "caused out of the congruous symmetry, measure, order and manner of parts, and that comeliness which proceeds from this beauty is called grace, and from then all fair things are gracious.” For grace and beauty are so wonderfully annexed, “so sweetly and gently win our souls, and strongly allure, that they confound our judgment and cannot be distinguished. Beauty and grace are like those beams and shinings that come from the glorious and divine sun," which are diverse, as they proceed from the diverse objects, to please and affect our several senses. "As the species of beauty are taken at our eyes, ears, or conceived in our inner soul," as Plato disputes at large in his Dialogue de pulchro, Phaedro, Hyppias, and after many sophistical errors refuted, concludes that beauty it is a grace in all things, delighting the eyes, ears, and soul itself; so that, as Valesius infers hence, whatever pleases our ears, eyes, and soul, must needs be beautiful, fair, and delightful to us." And nothing can more please our ears than music, or pacify our minds." Fair houses, pictures, orchards, gardens, fields, a fair hawk, a fair horse is most acceptable to us; whatever pleases our eyes and ears, we call beautiful and fair; "Pleasure belongs to the rest of the senses, but grace and beauty to these two alone." As the objects vary and are diverse, so they differently affect our eyes, ears, and soul itself. Which gives occasion to some to make so many several kinds of love as there be objects. One beauty arises from God, of which and divine love S Dionysius, with many fathers and neoterics, have written just volumes, De amore Dei, as they term it, many paraenetical discourses; another from these creatures; there is a beauty of the body, a beauty of the soul, a beauty from virtue, the form of martyrs, Austin calls it, which we see with the eyes of our mind; which beauty, as Tully says, if we could discern with these corporeal eyes, would cause admirable affections, and ravish our souls.
This other beauty which arises from those extreme parts, and graces which proceed from gestures, speeches, several motions, and proportions of creatures, men and women, especially from women, which made those old poets put the three graces still in Venus' company, as attending on her, and holding up her train, are infinite almost, and vary their names with their objects, as love of money, covetousness, love of beauty, lust, immoderate desire of any pleasure, concupiscence, friendship, love, goodwill, and more, and is either virtue or vice, honest, dishonest, in excess, defect, as shall be shown in his place. Heroic love, religious love, and more, which may be reduced to a twofold division, according to the principal parts which are affected, the brain and liver. Love and friendship, which Scalinger, Valesius and Melancthon warrant out of Plato They kiss and they are from that speech of Pausanias belike, that makes two Venuses and two loves. “One Venus is ancient without a mother, and descended from heaven, whom we call celestial; the younger, begotten of Jupiter and Dione, whom we commonly call Venus.” Ficinus, in his commentary upon this place. Following Plato, he calls these two loves, two devils, or good and bad angels according to us, which are still hovering about our souls. “The one rears to heaven, the other depresses us to hell; the one good, which stirs us up to the contemplation of that divine beauty for whose sake we perform justice and all godly offices, study philosophy, and else; the other base, and though bad yet to be respected; for indeed both are good in their own natures: procreation of children is as necessary as that finding out of truth, but therefore called bad, because it is abused, and withdraws our souls from the speculation of that other to baser objects," so far Ficinus. Saint Austin, book fifteen of the city God and Psalm sixty four, hath delivered as much in effect. “Every creature is good, and may be loved well or ill,” and “Two cities make two loves, Jerusalem and Babylon, the love of God the one, the love of the world the other; of these two cities we all are citizens, as by examination of ourselves we may soon find, and of which." The one love is the root of all mischief, the other of all good. So, in his de moribus ecclesiae, he will have those four cardinal virtues to be naught else but love rightly composed; in his book the city of god, he calls virtue the order of love, whom Thomas follows. He confirms as much, and amplifies in many words. Lucian, to the same purpose, hath a division of his own, "One love was born in the sea, which is as various and raging in young men's breasts as the sea itself, and causes burning lust: the other is that golden chain which was let down from heaven, and with a divine fury ravisheth our souls, made to the image of God, and stirs us up to comprehend the innate and incorruptible beauty to which we were once created." Beroaldus has expressed all this in an epigram of his:
If divine Plato's tenets they be true,
Two Veneres, two loves there be,
The one from heaven, unbegotten still,
Which knits our souls in unity.
The other famous over all the world,
Binding the hearts of gods and men;
Dishonest, wanton, and seducing she,
Rules whom she will, both where and when.
This twofold division of love, Origen likewise follows, in his Commentary on the Canticles, one from God, the other from the devil, as he holds, understanding it in the worse sense, which many others repeat and imitate. Both which, to omit all subdivisions, in excess or defect, as they are abused, or degenerate, cause melancholy in a particular kind, as shall be shown in his place. Austin, in another Tract, makes a threefold division of this love, which we may use well or ill: “God, our neighbor, and the world: God above us, our neighbor next us, the world beneath us. In the course of our desires, God hath three things, the world one, our neighbor two. Our desire for God, is either from God, with God, or to God, and ordinarily so runs. From God, when it receives from him, whence, and for which it should love him: with God, when it contradicts his will in nothing: to God, when it seeks to him, and rests itself in him. Our love to our neighbor may proceed from him, and run with him, not to him: from him, as when we rejoice of his good safety, and well doing: with him, when we desire to have him a fellow and companion of our journey in the way of the Lord: not in him, because there is no aid, hope, or confidence in man. From the world our love comes, when we begin to admire the Creator in his works, and glorify God in his creatures: with the world it should run, if, according to the mutability of all temporalities, it should be dejected in adversity, or over elevated in prosperity: to the world, if it would settle itself in its vain delights and studies.” Many such partitions of love I could repeat, and subdivisions, but at least, which Scaliger objects to Cardan. "I confound filthy burning lust with pure and divine love," I will follow that accurate division of Leon Hebreus, betwixt Sophia and Philo, where he speaks of natural, sensible, and rational love, and handles each apart. Natural love or hatred, is that sympathy or antipathy which is to be seen in animate and inanimate creatures, in the four elements, metals, stones, heavy tend downwards, as a stone to his center, fire upward, and rivers to the sea. The sun, moon, and stars go still around, Lovers of nature, exercise dues, for love of perfection. This love is manifest, I say, in inanimate creatures. How do you eat a loadstone to draw iron to it? Jet chaff? The ground to covet showers, but for love? No creature, concludes Saint Jerome, is to be found that does not love anything, no stock, no stone, that hath not some feeling of love, Tis more eminent in plants, herbs, and is especially observed in vegetables; as between the vine and elm a great sympathy, between the vine and the cabbage, between the vine and the olive, Virgo flees Bromium, between the vine and bays a great antipathy, the vine loves not the bay, "nor his smell, and will kill him, if he grow near him;" the bur and the lentil cannot endure one another, the olive and the myrtle embrace each other, in roots and branches if they grow near. Read more of this in Picolominius, Crescentius, Baptista Porta, Fracastorius of the love and hatred of planets, consult with every astrologer. Leo Hebreus gives many fabulous reasons, and moralises them withal.
Sensible love is that of brute beasts, of which the same Hebreus assigns these causes. First for the pleasure they take in the act of generation, male and female love one another. Secondly, for the preservation of the species, and desire of young brood. Thirdly, for the mutual agreement, as being of the same kind, in one another's company, Ants are welcome, cicadas cicadas, and birds of a feather will gather together. Fourthly, for custom, use, and familiarity, as if a dog be trained up with a lion and a bear, contrary to their natures, they will love each other. Hawks, dogs, horses, love their masters and keepers: many stories I could relate in this kind, but see Gillius, those two Epistles of Lipsius, of dogs and horses, Agellius, and more. Fifthly, for bringing up, as if a bitch brings up a kid, a hen ducklings, a hedge-sparrow a cuckoo, and more.
The third kind is love of knowledge, as Leon calls it, rational love, intellectual love, and is proper to men, on which I must insist. This appears in God, angels, men. God is love itself, the fountain of love, the disciple of love, as Plato styles him; the servant of peace, the God of love and peace; have peace with all men and God is with you.
Whoever worships Olympus,
He submits to himself the world and God.
"By this love", saith Gerson, "we purchase heaven," and buy the kingdom of God. This love is either in the Trinity itself, for the Holy Ghost is the love of the Father and the Son, and more. John three, 35, and verse 20, and fourteen, 31, or towards us his creatures, as in making the world. Love made the world, love built cities, soul of the world, invented arts, sciences, and all good things, incites us to virtue and humanity, combines and quickens; keeps peace on earth, quietness by sea, mirth in the winds and elements, expels all fear, anger, and rusticity; A round circle still from good to good; for love is the beginning and end of all our actions, the efficient and instrumental cause, as our poets in their symbols, impressions, emblems of rings, squares, and more, shadow unto us,
If first and last of anything you wit,
Cease; love's the sole and only cause of it.
Love, says Leo, made the world, and afterwards in redeeming it, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son for it," John three, 16. "Behold what love the Father hath shown on us, that we should be called the sons of God," first John three, 1. Or by His sweet Providence, in protecting of it; either all in general, or His saints elect and church in particular, whom He keeps as the apple of His eye, whom He loves freely, as Hosea fourteen, 5. speaks, and dearly respects, A man is dearer to them than to himself. Not that we are fair, nor for any merit or grace of ours, for we are most vile and base; but out of His incomparable love and goodness, out of His Divine Nature. And this is that Homer's golden chain, which reaches down from heaven to earth, by which every creature is annexed, and depends on his Creator. He made all, says Moses, "and it was good;" He loves it as well. The love of angels and living souls is mutual amongst themselves, towards us militant in the church, and all such as love God; as the sunbeams irradiate the earth from those celestial thrones, they by their well wishes reflect on us, in promoting the salvation of men zealous and constant servants, there is joy in heaven for every sinner that repenteth; they pray for us, are solicitous for our good, Chaste geniuses.
“Where charity prevails, sweet desire, joy, and love towards God are also present.”
Love proper to mortal men is the third member of this subdivision, and the subject of my following discourse.
Member two.
Subsection one. Love of Men, which varies as his Objects, Profitable, Pleasant, Honest.
Valesius defines this love which is in men, "to be an affection of both powers, appetite and reason." The rational resides in the brain, the other in the liver, as before hath been said out of Plato and others; the heart is variously affected by both, and carried a thousand ways by consent. The sensitive faculty most part overrules reason, the soul is carried hoodwinked, and the understanding captive like a beast. "The heart is variously inclined, sometimes they are merry, sometimes sad, and from love arise hope and fear, jealousy, fury, despair." Now this love of men is diverse, and varies, as the object varies, by which they are enticed, as virtue, wisdom, eloquence, profit, wealth, money, fame, honor, or comeliness of person, and more. Leo Hubreus, in his first dialogue, reduces them all to these three, profitable, pleasant, honest; out of Aristotle, of which he discourseth at large, and whatever is beautiful and fair, is referred to them, or any way to be desired. "To profitable is ascribed health, wealth, honor, and else, which is rather ambition, desire, covetousness, than love:" friends, children, love of women, all delightful and pleasant objects, are referred to the second. The love of honest things consists in virtue and wisdom, and is preferred before that which is profitable and pleasant: intellectual, about that which is honest. Saint Austin calls it “profitable, worldly; pleasant, carnal; honest, spiritual Of and from all three, result charity, friendship, and true love, which respects God and our neighbor." Of each of these I will briefly dilate, and show in what sort they cause melancholy.
Amongst all these fair enticing objects, which procure love, and bewitch the soul of man, there is none so moving, so forcible as profit; and that which carries with it a show of commodity. Health indeed is a precious thing, to recover and preserve which we will undergo any misery, drink bitter potions, freely give our goods: restore a man to his health, his purse lies open to thee, bountiful he is, thankful and beholding to thee ; but give him wealth and honor, give him gold, or what shall be for his advantage and preference, and thou shalt command his affections, oblige him eternally to thee, heart, hand, life, and all is at thy service, thou art his dear and loving friend, good and gracious lord and master, these Meccans; he is thy slave, thy vassal, most devoted, affectioned, and bound in all duty: tell him good tidings in this kind, there spoke an angel, a blessed hour that brings in gain, he is thy creature, and thou his creator, he hugs and admires you; he is thine for ever. No loadstone so attractive as that of profit, none so fair an object as this of gold; nothing wins a man sooner than a good turn, bounty and liberality command body and soul:
Good turns doth pacify both God and men,
And Jupiter himself is won by them.
Gold of all others is a most delicious object; a sweet light, a goodly luster it hath; Austin says, and we had rather see it than the sun. Sweet and pleasant in getting, in keeping; it seasons all our labors, intolerable pains we take for it, base employments, endure bitter flouts and taunts, long journeys, heavy burdens, all are made light and easy by this hope of gain. in the box The sight of gold refresheth our spirits, and ravisheth our hearts, as that Babylonian garment and golden wedge did Achan in the camp, the very sight and hearing sets on fire his soul with desire of it. It will make a man run to the antipodes, or tarry at home and turn parasite, lie, flatter, prostitute himself, swear and bear false witness; he will venture his body, kill a king, murder his father, and damn his soul to come at it. A more beautiful mass of gold, as he well observed, the mass of gold is fairer than all your Grecian pictures, that Apelles, Phidias, or any doting painter could ever make: we are enamored with it,
Almost the first vows, and best known to all the temples,
Wealth to grow.
All our labours, studies, endeavours, vows, prayers and wishes, are to get, how to compass it.
This is the one to whom the greatest world serves,
The powerful diva of things, and the mistress of fate's money.
“This is the great goddess we adore and worship; this is the sole object of our desire.” If we have it, as we think, we are made for ever, thrice happy, princes, lords, and else. If we lose it, we are dull, heavy, dejected, discontented, miserable, desperate, and mad. Our estate and well-being ebbs and flows with our commodity; and as we are endowed or enriched, so are we beloved and esteemed: it lasts no longer than our wealth; when that is gone, and the object removed, farewell friendship: as long as bounty, good cheer, and rewards were to be hoped for, friends enough; they were tied to thee by the teeth, and would follow thee as crows do a carcass: but when thy goods are gone and spent, the lamp of their love is out, and thou shalt be contemned, scorned, hated, injured. Lucian's Timon, when he lived in prosperity, was the sole spectacle of Greece, only admired; who but Timon? Everybody loved, honored, applauded him, each man offered him his service, and sought to be kin to him; but when his gold was spent, his fair possessions gone, farewell Timon: none so ugly, none so deformed, so hateful an object as Timon, no man so ridiculous on a sudden, they gave him a penny to buy a rope, no man would know him.
Tis the general humor of the world, commodity steers our affections throughout, we love those that are fortunate and rich, that thrive, or by whom we may receive mutual kindness, hope for like courtesies, get any good, gain, or profit; hate those, and abhor on the other side, which are poor and miserable, or by whom we may sustain loss or inconvenience. And even those that were now familiar and dear to us, our loving and long friends, neighbors, kinsmen, allies, with whom we have conversed, and lived as so many Geryons for some years past, striving still to give one another all good content and entertainment, with mutual invitations, feastings, disports, offices, for whom we would ride, run, spend ourselves, and of whom we have so freely and honorably spoken, to whom we have given all those turgent titles, and magnificent eulogiums, most excellent and most noble, worthy, wise, grave, learned, valiant, and else, and magnified beyond measure: if any controversy arises between us, some trespass, injury, abuse, some part of our goods be detained, a piece of land come to be litigious, if they cross us in our suit, or touch the string of our commodity, we detest and depress them upon a sudden: neither affinity, consanguinity, or old acquaintance can contain us, but Caprificus will come out with a broken liver. A golden apple sets altogether by the ears, as if a marrowbone or honeycomb were flung amongst bears: father and son, brother and sister, kinsmen are at odds: and look what malice, deadly hatred can invent, that shall be done, Terrible, dire, pestilential, terrible, ferocious, mutual injuries, desire of revenge, and how to hurt them, him and his, are all our studies. If our pleasures be interrupted, we can tolerate it: our bodies hurt, we can put it up and be reconciled: but touch our commodities, we are most impatient: fair becomes foul, the graces are turned to harpies, friendly greetings to bitter imprecations , mutual feastings to plotting villainies, minings and counterminings; good words to satires and invectives, we revile on the contrary, nought but his imperfections are in our eyes, he is a base knave, a devil, a monster, a caterpillar, a viper, a hog-rubber, and more, the scene is altered on a sudden, love is turned to hate, mirth to melancholy: so furiously are we most part bent, our affections fixed upon this object of commodity, and upon money, the desire of which in excess is covetousness: ambition tyranniseth over our souls, as I have shown, and in defect crucifies as much, as if a man by negligence, ill husbandry, improvidence, prodigality, waste and consume his goods and fortunes , beggary follows, and melancholy, he becomes an abject, odious and "worse than an infidel, in not providing for his family."
Subsection two. Pleasant Objects of Love.
Pleasant objects are infinite, whether they be such as have life, or be without life; inanimate are countries, provinces, towers, towns, cities, as he said, We see a fair island by description, when we see it not. The sun never saw a fairer city, Thessalian Tempe, orchards, gardens, pleasant walks, groves, fountains, and more. The heaven itself is said to be fair or foul: fair buildings,fair pictures, all artificial, elaborate and curious works, clothes, give an admirable luster: we admire, and gaze upon them, like the bird of Juno's children, as children do on a peacock: a fair dog, a fair horse and hawk, and else Thessalus loves a young horse, an Egyptian cow, a Lacedaemonian cat, and else, such things we love, are most gracious in our sight, acceptable unto us, and whatever else may cause this passion, if it be superfluous or immoderately loved, as Observe the Guyanese. These things in themselves are pleasing and good, singular ornaments, necessary, comely, and fit to be had; but when we fix an immoderate eye, and dote on them too much, this pleasure may turn to pain, bring much sorrow and discontent to us, work our final overthrow, and cause melancholy in the end. Many are carried away with those bewitching sports of gaming, hawking, hunting, and such vain pleasures, as I have said: some with immoderate desire of fame, to be crowned in the Olympics, knighted in the field, and more, and by these means ruin themselves. The lascivious dotes on his fair mistress, the glutton on his dishes, which are infinitely varied to please the palate, the epicure on his several pleasures, the superstitious on his idol, and fats himself with future joys, as Turks feed themselves with an imaginary persuasion of a sensual paradise: so several pleasant objects differently affect different men. But the fairest objects and enticings proceed from men themselves, which most frequently captivate, allure, and make them dote beyond all measure upon one another, and that for many respects: first, as some suppose, by that secret force of stars, which does the star temper me for you? They do singularly dote on such a man, hate such again, and can give no reason for it. I do not love you Sabidi, and else. Alexander admired Ephestion, Adrian Antinous, Nero Sporus, and more. The physicians refer this to their temperament, astrologers to trine and sextile aspects, or the opposite of their several ascendants, lords of their births, love and hatred of planets; Cicogna, to concord and discord of spirits; but most to outward graces. A merry companion is welcome and acceptable to all men, and therefore, says Gomesius, princes and great men entertain jesters and players commonly in their courts. But Peers congregate very easily with peers, tis that similarity of manners, which ties most men in an inseparable link, as if they be addicted to the same studies or sports, they delight in one another's companies, "birds of a feather will gather together:" if they be of different inclinations, or opposite in manners, they can rarely agree. Secondly, affability, custom, and familiarity, may convert nature many times, though they be different in manners, as if they be countrymen, fellow-students, colleagues, or have been fellow-soldiers, brethren in affliction, a bitter society of calamities, even men of different talents unite, affinity, or some such accidental occasion, though they cannot agree amongst themselves, they will stick together like burrs, and bold against a third; so after some discontinuance, or death, enmity ceases; or in a foreign place:
He feeds on the living bruise, rests after the fates:
And hatreds fall, and sad death overwhelms anger.
A third cause of love and hate, may be mutual offices, accepted benefit, commend him, use him kindly, take his part in a quarrel, relieve him in his misery, thou winnest him for ever; do the opposite, and be sure of a perpetual enemy. Praise and dispraise of each other, do as much, though unknown, as Schoppius by Scaliger and Casaubonus: a mule itches a mule; who but Scaliger with him? What encomiums, epithets, eulogiums? Ancient of wisdom, perpetual dictator, ornament of letters, miracle of Europe, noble Scaliger, incredible excellence of genius, and more, but when they began to vary, none so absurd as Scaliger, so vile and base, as his books on the Burdonum family, and other satirical invectives may witness, Ovid, in Ibin, Archilocus himself was not so bitter. Another great tie or cause of love, is consanguinity: parents are clear to their children, children to their parents, brothers and sisters, cousins of all sorts, as a hen and chickens, all of a knot: every crow thinks her own bird fairest. Many memorable examples are in this kind, and 'this portent simile, if they do not: "a mother cannot forget her child:" Solomon so found out the true owner; love of parents may not be concealed, tis natural, descends, and they that are inhuman in this kind, are unworthy of that air they breathe, and of the four elements; yet many unnatural examples we have in this rank, of hard-hearted parents, disobedient children, of disagreeing brothers, nothing so common. The love of kinsmen is grown cold, "many kinsmen", as the saying is, "few friends;" if thine estate be good, and thou ablest, to relate equally, to requite their kindness, there will be mutual correspondence, otherwise thou art a burden, most odious to them above all others. The last object that ties man and man, is comeliness of person, and beauty alone, as men love women with a wanton eye: which par excellence is termed heroic, or love-melancholy. Other loves, saith Picolomineus, are so called with some contraction, as the love of wine, gold, and more, but this of women is predominant in a higher strain, whose part affected is the liver, and this love deserves a longer explanation, and shall be dilated apart in the next section.
Subsection three. Honest Objects of Love.
Beauty is the common object of all love, "as a jet draws a straw, so doth beauty love:" virtue and honesty are great motives, and give as fair a lustre as the rest, especially if they be sincere and right, not fucate, but proceeding from true form, and an incorrupt judgment; those two Venus' twins, Eros and Anteros, are then most firm and fast. For many times otherwise men are deceived by their flattering gnathos, dissembling camelions, outsiders, hypocrites that make a show of great love, learning, pretend honesty, virtue, zeal, modesty, with affected looks and counterfeit gestures: feigned protests often steal away the hearts and favors of men, and deceive them, in the appearance of virtue and shadow, when as really and indeed, there is no worth or honesty at all in them, no truth, but mere hypocrisy, subtlety, knavery, and the like. As true friends they are, as he that Caelius Secundus met by the highway side; and hard it is in this temporising age to distinguish such companions, or to find them out. Such gnathos as these for the most part belong to great men, and by this glozing flattery, affability, and such like philters, so dive and insinuate into their favors, that they are taken for men of excellent worth, wisdom, learning, demigods, and so screw themselves into dignities, honors, offices; but these men cause harsh confusion often, and as many times stirs as Rehoboam's counselors in a commonwealth, overthrew themselves and others. Tandlerus and some authors make a doubt, whether love and hatred may be compelled by philters or characters; Cardan and Marbodius, by precious stones and amulets; astrologers by choice of times, and else, as I shall discuss elsewhere. The true object of this honest love is virtue, wisdom, honesty, real worth, internal form, and this love cannot deceive or be compelled, to be lovable, love itself is the most potent philtrum, virtue and wisdom, grace doing grace, the sole and only grace, not counterfeit, but open, honest, simple, naked, "descending from heaven," as our apostle hath it, an infused habit from God, which hath given several gifts, as wit, learning, tongues, for which they shall be amiable and gracious, Ephesians Four, 11, as to Saul's stature and a goodly presence, First Samuel Nine, 1, Joseph found favor in Pharaoh's court, Genesis thirty nine, for this person; and Daniel with the princes of the eunuchs, Daniel nineteen, 19. Christ was gracious with God and men, Luke two, 52. There is still some peculiar grace, as of good discourse, eloquence, wit, honesty, which is the first mobile, first mover, and a most forcible loadstone to draw the favors and good wills of men's eyes, ears, and affections unto them When "Jesus spake, they were all astonished at his answers," Luke Two, 47, "and wondered at his gracious words which proceeded from his mouth." An orator steals away the hearts of men, and as another Orpheus, where he wills, where he wills, he pulls them to him by speech alone: a sweet voice causes admiration; and he that can utter himself in good words, in our ordinary phrase, is called a proper man, a divine spirit. For which cause belike, our old poets, the Senate and the people of poets, made Mercury the gentleman-usher to the Graces, captain of eloquence, and those charities to be Jupiter's and Eurymone's daughters, descended from above. Though they be otherwise deformed, crooked, ugly to behold, those good parts of the mind denominate them fair. Plato commends the beauty of Socrates; yet who was more grim of countenance, stern and ghastly to look upon? So are and have been many great philosophers, as Gregory Nazianzen observes, "deformed most part in that which is to be seen with the eyes, but most elegant in that which is not to be seen." Wisdom often hides under worn clothing. Aesop, Democritus, Aristotle, Politianus, Melanchthon, Gesner, and more, withered old men, Sileni Alcibiades, very harsh and impolite to the eye; but who were so terse, polite, eloquent, generally learned, temperate and modest? No man then living was so fair as Alcibiades, so lovely as to the surface, to the eye, as Boethius observes, but he had a most ugly body internally, a most deformed soul; honesty, virtue, fair conditions, are great enticers to such as are well given, and much avail to get the favor and goodwill of men.
Abdolominus in Curtius, a poor man, but which my author notes, "the cause of this poverty was his honesty", for his modesty and continence from a private person (for they found him digging in his garden) was saluted king, and preferred before all the magnificoes of his time, "a purple embroidered garment was put upon him, and they bade him wash himself, and, as he was worthy, take upon him the style and spirit of a king," continue his continence and the rest of his good parts. Titus Pomponius Atticus, that noble citizen of Rome, was so fair conditioned, of so sweet a carriage, that he was generally beloved of all good men, of Caesar, Pompey, Antony, Tully, of divers sects, and more, obtained many inheritances, Cornelius Nepos writes, by goodness alone. To hear the work, the price, and else. It is worthy of your attention, Livy cries, "you that scorn all but riches, and give no esteem to virtue, except they be wealthy withal, Quinctius Cincinnatus had but four acres, and by the consent of the senate was chosen dictator of Rome.” Of such account were Cato, Fabricius, Aristides, Antonius, Probus, for their eminent worth: so Caesar, Trajan, Alexander, admired for valor, Haephestion loved Alexander, but Parmenius the king: Titus the delight of the human race, and which Aurelius Victor hath of Vespasian, the darling of his time, as Edgar Etheling was in England, for his excellent virtues: their memory is yet fresh, sweet, and we love them many ages after, though they be dead: He left a pleasant memory of himself, says Lipsius of his friend, living and dead they are all one. “I have ever loved as thou knowest”, so Tully wrote to Dolabella, “Marcus Brutus for his great wit, singular honesty, constancy, sweet conditions; and believe it” “there is nothing so amiable and fair as virtue.” "I do mightily love Calvisinus," so Pliny writes to Sossius, "a most industrious, eloquent, upright man, which is all in all with me:" the affection came from his good parts. And as Saint Austin comments on the eighty fourth Psalm, "there is a peculiar beauty of justice, and inward beauty, which we see with the eyes of our hearts, love, and are enamored with, as in martyrs, though their bodies be torn in pieces with wild beasts, yet this beauty shines, and we love their virtues.” The stoics are of opinion that a wise man is only fair; and Cato in Tully’s third diaglog of de Finibus bonorum et malorum contends the same, that the features of the mind are far fairer than those of the body, incomparably beyond them: wisdom and valor according to Xenophon, especially deserve the name of beauty, and denominate one fair, and incomparably more beautiful, as Austin holds, is the truth of the Christians than the Helen of the Greeks. "Wine is strong, the king is strong, women are strong, but truth overcomes all things," Esdras one, 3, 10, 11, 12. "Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding, for the merchandise thereof is better than silver, and the gain thereof better than gold: it is more precious than pearls, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her," Proverbs Two, 13, 14, 15, a wise, true, just, upright, and good man, I say it again, is only fair: it is reported of Magdalene Queen of France, and wife to Lewis the eleventh, a Scottish woman by birth, that walking forth in an evening with her ladies, she spied Alanus, one of the king's chaplains, a silly, old, hard-favoured man fast asleep in a bower, and kissed him sweetly; when the young ladies laughed at her for it, she replied, that it was not his person that she did embrace and reverence, but, with a platonic love, the divine beauty of his soul. Thus in all ages virtue hath been adored, admired, a singular glory hath proceeded from it: and the more virtuous he is, the more gracious, the more admired. No man so much followed upon earth as Christ himself: and as the Psalmist saith, forty-five, 2, "He was fairer than the sons of men."
Chrysostom, Bernard de Omnia Sanctus; Austin, Cassiodorus, interpret it of the beauty of his person; there was a divine majesty in his looks, it shone like lightning and drew all men to it: but Basil, Theodoret, Arnobius, and more, of the beauty of his divinity, justice, grace, eloquence, and more. Thomas in Psalm fourteen, of both; and so doth Baradius and Peter Morales, lib de pulchritud. Jesus and Mary, adding as much of Joseph and the Virgin Mary, this other form preceded them all, according to that prediction of Sibylla Cumea. Be they present or absent, near us, or far off, this beauty shines, and will attract men of many miles to come and visit it. Plato and Pythagoras left their country, to see those wise Egyptian priests: Apollonius traveled into Ethiopia, Persia, to consult with the Magi, Brachmanni, gymnosophists. The Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon; and "many," says Hierom, "went out of Spain and remote places a thousand miles, to behold that Livy speaks:" they visited and heard one thing, and departed from the Gads. No beauty leaves such an impression, strikes so deep, or links the souls of men closer than virtue.
Not through the gods or the painter could.
Or imagine any sculptor,
Such beauty as virtue has;
"no painter, no graver, no carver can express virtue's lustre, or those admirable rays that come from it, those enchanting rays that enamour posterity, those everlasting rays that continue to the world's end." Many, saith Phavorinus, that loved and admired Alcibiades in his youth, knew not, cared not for Alcibiades a man; but the beauty of Socrates is still the same; virtue's luster never fades, it is ever fresh and green, always alive to all succeeding ages, and a most attractive loadstone, to draw and combine such as are present. For that reason alike, Homer feigns the three Graces to be linked and tied hand in hand, because the hearts of men are so firmly united with such graces. "O sweet bands, Seneca exclaims, which so happily combine, that those which are bound by them love their binders, desiring withal much more harder to be bound," and as so many Geryons to be united into one. For the nature of true friendship is to combine, to be like affected, of one mind,
Willing and unwilling both are the same,
And satisfied with the whole.
The mind is old.
As the poet says, still to continue one and the same. And where this love takes place there is peace and quietness, a true correspondence, perfect friendship, a diapason of vows and wishes, the same opinions, as between David and Jonathan, Damon and Pythias, Pylades and Orestes, Nysus and Euryalus, Theseus and Pirithous, they will live and die together, and pursue one another with good turns. For they think it most wretched to be conquered in love, not only living, but when their friends are dead, with tombs and monuments, ghosts, epitaphs, elegies, inscriptions, pyramids, obelisks, statues, images, pictures, histories, poems, annals, feasts, anniversaries, many ages after, as Plato's scholars did, they will still parent, omit no good office that may tend to the preservation of their names, honors, and eternal memory. That with colors, that with wax, that with brass, and more. "He did express his friends in colors, in wax, in brass, in ivory, marble, gold, and silver", as Pliny reports of a citizen in Rome, "and in a great audience not long since recited a just volume of his life." In another place, speaking of an epigram which Martial had composed in praise of him, “He gave me as much as he might, and would have done more if he could: though what can a man give more than honor, glory, and eternity?” But that which he wrote peradventure will not continue, yet he wrote it to continue. Tis all the reward a poor scholar can make his well-deserving patron, Mecaenas, friend, to mention him in his works, to dedicate a book to his name, to write his life, and else, as all our poets, orators, Historiographers have ever done, and the greatest revenge such men take of their adversaries, to persecute them with satires, invectives, and more, and tis both ways of great moment, as Plato gives us to understand. Paulus Jovius, in the fourth book of the life and deeds of Pope Leo Decimus, his noble patron, concludes in these words, "Because I cannot honor him as other rich men do, with like endeavour, affection, and piety, I have undertaken to write his life; since my fortunes will not give me leave to make a more sumptuous monument, I will perform those rites to his sacred ashes, which a small, perhaps, but a liberal wit can afford." But 1 rove Where this true love is wanting, there can be no firm peace, friendship from teeth outward, counterfeit, or for some by-respects, so long dissembled, till they have satisfied their own ends, which, upon every small occasion, breaks out into enmity, open war, defiance, heart-burnings, whispering, calumnies, contentions, and all manner of bitter melancholy discontents. And those men who have no other object of their love, than greatness, wealth, authority, and more, are rather feared than beloved; they neither love anyone nor are loved by anyone: and however borne with for a time, yet for their tyranny and oppression, griping, covetousness, currish hardness, folly, intemperance, imprudence, and such like vices, they are generally odious, abhorred of all, both God and men.
Not your wife wants you saved, not your son, but everyone neighbors hate
"Wife and children, friends, neighbors, all the world forsakes them, would feign to be rid of them," and are compelled many times to lay violent hands on them, or else God's judgments overtake them: instead of graces, come furies. So when fair Abigail, a woman of singular wisdom, was acceptable to David, Nabal was churlish and evil-conditioned; and therefore Mordecai was received, when Haman was executed, Haman the favorite, "that had his seat above the other princes, to whom all the king's servants that stood in the gates, bowed their knees and reverenced." Though they flourished many times, such hypocrites, such temporising foxes, and blear the world's eyes by flattery, bribery, dissembling their natures, or other men's weakness, that cannot so apprehend their tricks, yet in the end they will be discerned, and precipitated in a moment: "surely," says David, "thou hast set them in slippery places," Psalm thirty seven, 5, as so many Sejani, they will come down to the Gemonian scales; and as Eusebius in Ammianus, that was in such authority, to command the Emperor, be cast down headlong on a sudden. Or put case they escape, and rest unmasked to their lives' end, yet after their death their memory stinks as a snuff of a candle put out, and those that durst not so much as mutter against them in their lives, will prosecute their name with satires, libels, and bitter imprecations, they shall hear evil in all succeeding ages, and be odious to the world's end.
Member three.
Charity composed of all three Kinds, Pleasant, Profitable, Honest.
Besides this love that comes from profit, pleasant, honest, for one good turn asks another in equity, that which proceeds from the law of nature, or from discipline and philosophy, there is yet another love compounded of all these three, which is charity, and includes piety, love, benevolence, friendship, even all those virtuous habits; for love is the circle equant of all other affections, of which Aristotle dilates at large in his Ethics, and is commanded by God, which no man can well perform, but he that is a Christian, and a true regenerate man; this is, "To love God above all, and our neighbor as ourselves;" for this love is a lychnus kindling and lit, a communicating light, apt to illuminate itself as well as others. All other objects are fair, and very beautiful, I confess; kindred, alliance, friendship, the love that we owe to our country, nature, wealth, pleasure, honor, and such moral respects, and more, of which read copious Aristotle in his morals; a man is beloved of a man, in that he is a man; but all these are far more eminent and great, when they shall proceed from a sanctified spirit, that hath a true touch of religion, and a reference to God. Nature binds all creatures to love their young ones; a hen to preserve her broo
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NubesALot
14 hours ago $5.66 earnedDark Souls Remastered and party games
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GamersErr0r
1 day ago $2.36 earnedits not what you think
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Phyxicx
12 hours agoRocket League with Friends! - 11/22/2024
21.8K1