h 66 men fools. Which Democritus wel signified in an Epistle of his to Hyppocrates: The "Abderites account virtue madness," and so do most men living. Shall I tell you the reason of it? Fortune and Virtue, Wisdom and Folly, their seconds, upon a time contended in the Olympicks; every man thought that Fortune and Folly would have the worst, and pitied their cases. But it fell out otherwise. Fortune was blind and cared not where she stroke, nor whom, without laws, Audabatarum instar, &c. Folly, rash and inconsiderate, esteemed as little what she said or did. Virtue and Wisdom gave place, were hissed out, and exploded by the common people; Folly and Fortune admired, and so are all their followers ever since: knaves and fools commonly fare and deserve best in worldlings eyes and opinions. Many good men have no better fate in their ages: Achish, 1 Sam. 21. 14. held David for a madman. Elisha and the rest were no otherwise esteemed. David was derided of the common people, Psa. 9. 7. “I am become a monster to many." And generally we are accounted fools for Christ, 1 Cor. 14. "We fools thought his life madnesse, and his end without honour," Wisd. 5. 4. Christ and his Apostles were censured in like sort, John 10. Mark 3. Acts 26. And so were all christians in Pliny's time, fuerunt & alii similis dementiæ, &c. And called not long after, Vesania sectatores, eversores hominum, polluti novatores fanatici, canes, malefici, venefici, Galilei homunciones, &c. 'Tis an ordinary thing with us, to account honest, devout, orthodox, divine, religious, plain-dealing men, idiots, asses, that cannot, or will not ly and dissemble, shift, flatter, accommodare se ad eum locum ubi nati sunt, make good bargains, supplant, thrive, patronis inservire; solennes ascendendi modos apprehendere, leges, mores, consuetudines rectè observare, candidè laudare, fortiter defendere, sententias amplecti, dubitare de nullis, credere omnia, accipere omnia, nihil reprehendere, cæteraque quæ promotionem ferunt & securitatem, quæ sine ambage fælicem reddunt hominem, & verè sapientem apud nos; that cannot temporize as other mendo,'hand and take bribes, &c. but fear God, and make a conscience of their doings. But the holy Ghost that knowes better how to judge, he cals them fools. "The fool hath said in his heart, Psal. 53. 1. And their ways utter their folly, Psal. 49. 14. For what can be more mad, than for a little worldly pleasure k Apud quos virtus, insania & furor esse dicitur. f Calcagninus Apol. omnes mirabantur, putantes illisam iri stultitiam. Sed præter expectatione res evenit, Audax stultitia in cam irruit, &c. illa cedit irrisa, & plures hinc habet sectatores stultitia. * Non est respondendum stulto secundum stultitiam. Lib. 10. ep. 97. * Aug. Cp. 178. Quis nisi mentis Quid insanius quam pro momentanea fœlicitate æternis 2 Reg. 7. inops, &c. te mancipare suppliciis? to to procure unto themselves eternal punishment? As Gregorie and others inculcate unto us. Yea even all those great Philosophers, the world hath ever had in admiration, whose works we do so much esteem, that gave precepts of wisdom to others, inventers of Arts and Sciences, Socrates the wisest man of his time by the Oracle of Apollo, whom his two scholars "Plato and Xenophon so much extol and magnifie with those honorable titles, "best and wisest of all mortal men, the happiest, and most just;" and as Alcibiades incomparably commends him; Achilles was a worthy man, but Bracides and others were as worthy as himself; Antenor and Nestor were as good as Pericles, and so of the rest; but none present, before, or after Socrates, nemo veterum neque eorum qui nunc sunt, were ever such, will match, or come ncer him. Those seven wise men of Greece, those Britain Druides, Indian Brachmanni, Ethiopian Gymnosophists, Magi of the Persians, Apollonius, of whom Philostratus, Non doctus sed natus sapiens, wise from his cradle, Epicurus so much admired by his Scholar Lucretius; "Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit, & omnes Whose wit excell'd the wits of men as far, * «Ut vix humana videatur stirpe creatus." All those, of whom we read such hyperbolicall eulogiums; as of Aristotle, that he was wisdom itself in the abstract, a miracle of nature, breathing libraries, as Eunapius of Longinus, lights of nature, gyants for wit, quintessence of wit, divine spirits, eagles in the clouds, fallen from heaven, gods, spirits, lamps of the world, dictators, "Nulla ferant talem secla futura virum:" Monarchs, miracles, superintendents of wit and learning, Oceanus, Phanix, Atlas, Monstrum, portentum hominis, orbis universi museum, ultimus humane nature conatus, naturæ maritus, "meritò cui doctior orbis Submissis defert fascibus imperium." In fine Phædonis. Hic finis fuit amici nostri, ô Eucrates, nostro quidem judicio omniũ quos experti sumus optimi & apprime sapientissimi, & justissimi. Xenop. 1. 4. de dictis Socratis ad finem, talis fuit Socrates quem omnium optimum & fœlicissimum statuam. *Lib. 25. Platonis Convivio. * Lucretius. P Anaxagoras olim mens dictus ab antiquis. Regula naturæ, naturæ miraculum, ipsa cruditio dæmonium hominis, sol scientiarum, mare, Sophia, antistes literarum & sapientiæ ut Scioppius olim de Scal. & Bensius. Aquila in nubibus, Imperator literatorum, columen literarum, abyssus eruditionis, ocellus Europæ, Scaliger. As As Elian writ of Protagoras and Gorgias, we may say of them all, tantum à sapientibus abfuerunt, quantum à viris pueri, they were children in respect, infants, not eagles but kites; novices, illiterate, Eunuchi sapientiæ. And although they were the wisest, and most admired in their age, as he censured Alexander, I do them, there were 10,000 in his army as worthy Captains (had they been in place of command) as valiant as himself; there were Myriads of men wiser in those dayes, and yet all short of what they ought to be Lactantius, in his book of wisdom, proves them to be dizards, fools, asses, mad-men, so full of absurd and ridiculous tenets, and brain-sick positions, that to his thinking never any old woman or sick person doted worse. Democritus took all from Leucippus, and left, saith he, "the inheritance of his folly to Epicurus," insanienti dum sapientiæ, &c. The like he holds of Plato, Aristippus, and the rest, making no difference" "betwixt them and beasts, saving that they could speak." * Theodoret in his tract De cur. grec. affect. manifestly evinces as much of Socrates, whom though that Oracle of Apollo confirmed to be the wisest man then living, and saved him from the plague, whom 2000 years have admired, of whom some will as soon speak evil as of Christ, yet re vera, he was an illiterate idiot, as y Aristophanes calls him, irriscor & ambitiosus, as his Master Aristotle terms him, scurra Atticus, as Zeno, an enemy to all arts and sciences, as Athæneus, to Philosophers and Travellers, an opinative asse, a caviller, a kinde of pedant; for his manners, as Theod. Cyrensis describes him, a * Sodomite, an Atheist, (so convict by Anytus) iracundus & ebrius, dicar, &c. a pot-companion, by * Plato's own confession, a sturdy drinker; and that of all others he was most sottish, a very mad-man in his actions and opinions. Pythagoras was part philosopher, part magician, or part witch. If you desire to hear more of Apollonius, a great wise man, sometime paralleled by Julian the apostate to Christ, I refer you to that learned tract of Eusebius against Hyerocles, and for them all to Lucian's Piscator, Icaromenippus, Necyomantia their actions, opinions in general were so prodigious, absurd, ridiculous, which they broached and maintained, their books and elaborate Treatises were full of dotage, which Tully ad Atticum long since observed, delirant plerumq; scriptores in libris suis, their lives being opposite to their words, Lib. 3. de sap. c. 17. & 20. omnes Philosophi, aut stulti, gut insani; nulla anus, nullus æger incptiùs deliravit. Democritus à Leucippo doctus, hæreditatem stultitiæ reliquit Epic. Hor. car. lib. 1. od. 34. 1. epicur. terest inter hos & bestias nisi quod loquantur. de sa. 1. 26. c. 8. virt. Neb. & Ranis. * Omnium disciplinarum ignarus. adolescentum causâ frequenter gymnasium obibat, &c. Nihil in* Cap. de * Pulchorum they they commended poverty to others, and were most covetous themselves, extolled love and peace, and yet persecuted one another with virulent hate and malice. They could give precepts for verse and prose, but not a man of them (as * Seneca tells them home) could moderate his affections. Their music did show us flebiles modos, &c. how to rise and fall, but they could not so contain themselves as in adversity not to make a lamentacle tone. They will measure ground by Geometrie, set down limits, divide and subdivide, but cannot yet prescribe quantum homini satis, or keep within compasse of reason and discretion. They can square circles, but understand not the state of their own souls, describe right lines and crooked, &c. but know not what is right in this life, quid in vitá rectum sit, ignorant; so that as he said, "Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem." I think all the Anticyra will not restore them to their wits, * if these men now, that held Xenodotus heart, Crates liver, Epictetus lanthorn, were so sottish, and had no more brains than so many beetles, what shall we think of the commonalty? what of the rest? Yea, but will you infer, that is true of heathens, if they be conferred with Christians, 1 Cor. 3. 19. "The wisdom of this world is foolishnesse with God, earthly and devilish," as James calls it, 3. 15. "They were vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was full of darknesse," Rom. 1. 21, 22. "When they professed themselves wise, became fools." Their witty works are admired here on earth, whilest their souls are tormented in hell fire. In some sense, Christiani Crassiani, Christians are Crassians, and if compared to that wisdom, no better than fools. Quis est sapiens? Solus Deus, * Pythagoras replies, "God is only wise," Rom. 16. Paul determines "only good," as Austine well contends, "and no man living can be justified in his sight." "God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if any did understand,' Psalm 53, 2, 3. but are corrupt, erre. Rom. 3. 12. "None doth good, no not one." Job aggravates this, 4. 18. "Behold he found no stedfastnesse in his servants, and laid folly upon his angels," 19. "How much more on them that dwell in houses of clay? In this sense we are all fools, and the Scripture alone is arr Minerve, we and our writings are shallow and unperfect. But I do not so mean; even in our ordinary dealings, we are no better then fools. "All our actions," * Seneca. Scis retunda metiri, sed non tuum animum. Ab uberibus sapientia lactati cæcutire non possunt. b Cor Xenodoti & jecur Cratetis. Hic profundissimæ Sophiæ fodinæ. *Lib. de nat. boni. с as f as Pliny told Trajan, " upbraid us of folly," our whole course of life is but matter of laughter: we are not soberly wise; and the world itself, which ought at least to be wise by reason of his antiquity, as Hugo de Prato Florido will have it, semper stultizat, is every day more foolish then other; the more it is whipped, the worse it is, and as a child will still be crowned with roses and flowers." We are apish in it, asini bipedes, and every place is full inversorum Apuleiorum, of metamorphosed and two-legged asses, inversorum Silenorum, childish, pueri instar bimuli, tremulá patris dormientis in ulná. Jovianus Pontanus, Antonio Dial, brings in some laughing at an old man, that by reason of his age was a little fond, but as he admonisheth there, Ne mireris mi hospes de hoc sene, marvel not at him only, for tota hæc civitas delirium, all our Town dotes in like sort, we are a company of fools. Ask not with him in the Poet, Larce hunc intemperie insaniaque agitant senem? What madnesse ghosts this old man, but what madnesse ghosts us all? For we are ad unum omnes, all mad, semel insanivimus omnes, not once, but alway so, & semel, & simul, & semper, ever and altogether as bad as he; and not senex bis puer, delira anus, but say it of us all, semper pueri, young and old, all dote, as Lactantius proves out of Seneca; and no difference betwixt us and children, saving that, majora ludimus, & grandioribus pupis, they play with babies of clouts and such toys, we sport with greater bables. We cannot accuse or condemn one another, being faulty ourselves, deliramenta loqueris, you talk idly, or as Mitio upbraided Demea, insanis, auferte, for we are as mad our own selves, and it is hard to say which is the worst. Nay, 'tis universally so, i" Vitam regit fortuna, non sapientia." When Socrates had taken great pains to finde out a wise man, and to that purpose had consulted with philosophers, poets, artificers, he concludes all men were fools; and though it procured him both anger and much envy, yet in all companies he would openly professe it. When Supputius in Pontanus had travelled all over Europe to conferre with a wise man, he returned at last without his errand, and could finde Cardan concurs with him, "Few there are (for ought none. 1 Ser. 4. stultizat, f InsaAdelph. 'Ant. Dial. ◄ Panegyr. Trajano omnes actiones exprobrare stultitiam videntur. in domi Pal. Mundus qui ob antiquitatem deberet esse sapiens, semper & nullis flagellis alteratur, sed ut puer vult rosis & floribus coronari. num te omnes pueri, clamantque puellæ. Hor. Plautus Aubular. act. 5. scen. 8. Tully Tusc. 5. * Plato Apologia Socratis. Lib. 3. de sap. pauci ut video sana mentis sunt. h |