verty, and why should a man?" "Tis fortune telum, non culpæ, fortune's fault, not mine. "Good Sir, I am a servant, (to use + Seneca's words) howsoever your poor friend; a servant, and yet your chamberfellow, and if you consider better. of it, your fellow servant." I am thy drudge in the world's eyes, yet in God's sight peradventure thy better, my soule is more precious, and I dearer unto him. Etiam servi diis curæ sunt, as Evangelus at large proves in Macrobius, the meanest servant is most precious in his sight. Thou art an Epicure, I am a good Christian: Thou art many parasanges before me in means, favour, wealth, honour, Claudius's Narcissus, Nero's Massa, Domitian's Parthenius, a favourite, a golden slave; thou coverest thy floors with marble, thy roofs with gold, thy wals with statues, fine pictures, curious hangings, &c. what of all this? calcas opes, &c. what's all this to true happiness? I live and breath under that glorious heaven, that August Capitol of nature, enjoy the brightness of stars, that cleer light of Sun and Moon, those infinite creatures, plants, birds, beasts, fishes, herbs, all that sea and land affords, far surpassing all that art and opulentia can give. I am free, and which Seneca said of Rome, culmen liberos texit, sub marmore et auro postea servitus habitavit, thou hast Amalthe cornu, plenty, pleasure, the world at will, I an despicable and poor; but a word overshot, a blow in choler, a game at tables, a loss at sea, a sudden fire, the Prince's dislike, a little sickness, &c. may make us equal in an instant; howsoever take thy time, triumph and insult a while, cinis æquat, as §Alphonsus said, death will equalize us all at last. I live sparingly, in the mean time, am clad homely, fare hardly; is this a reproach? am I the worse for it? am I contemptible for it? am I to be reprehended? A learned man in Nevisanus was taken down for sitting amongst Gentlemen, but he replyed, "my nobility is about the head, yours declines to the taile, and they were silent. Let them mock, scoffe and revile, 'tis not thy scorn, but his that made thee so; "He that mocketh the poor, reproacheth him that made him," Prov. 11. 5. " and he that rejoyceth at affliction, shall not be unpunished." For the rest, the poorer thou art, the happier thou art, ditior est, at non melior, saith Epictetus, he is richer, not better than thou art, not so free from lust, envy, hatred, ambition. Epist. * Tully. + Epist. 74. servus summe homo; servus sum, immo contubernalis, servus sum, at humilis amicus, immo conservus și cogitaver.s. 66. & 90. Panormitan. rebus gestis Alph. Lib. 4. num. 218. quidam deprehensus quod sederet loco nobilium, mea nobilitas, ait, est circa caput, vestra declinat ad caudam. Tanto beatior es, quanto collection. "Beatus "Beatus ille qui procul negotiis Paterna rura bobus exercet suis." Happy he, in that he is "freed from the tumults of the world, he seeks no honours, gapes after no preferment, flatters not, envies not, temporizeth not, but lives privately, and well contented with his estate; "Nec spes corde avidas, nec curam pascit inanem, Securus quò fata cadant." He is not troubled with state matters, whether kingdomes thrive better by succession or election; whether Monarchies should be mixt, temperate, or absolute; the house of Ottomon's and Austria is all one to him; he enquires not after Colonies or new discoveries; whether Peter were at Rome, or Constantine's donation be of force; what comets or new stars signifie, whether the earth stand or move, there be a new world in the Moon, or infinite worlds, &c. He is not touched with fear of invasions, factions or emulations; "Fœlix ille animi, divisque simillimus ipsis, An happy Soule, and like to God himself, A secure, quiet, blissful state he hath, if he could acknowledge it. But here is the misery, that he will not take notice of it; he repines at rich men's wealth, brave hangings, dainty fare, as Simonides objecteth to Hieron, he hath all the pleasures of the world, * in lectis eburneis dormit, vinum phialis bibit, optimis unguentis delibuitur, "he knows not the affliction of Joseph, stretching himself on ivory beds, and singing to the sound of the viol." And it troubles him that he hath not the like; there is a difference (he grumbles) between Laplolly and Phesants, to tumble i'th'straw and lye in a down bed, betwixt wine and water, a cottage and a palace. "He hates "Non amoribus inservit, non appetit honores, & qualitercunque rehctus satis habet, hominem se esse meminit, invidet nemini, neminem despicit, neminem * Politianus miratur, sermonibus malignis non attendit aut alitur. Plinius. in Rustico. Y Gyges regno Lydiæ inflatus sciscitatum misit Apollinem an quis mortalium se felicior esset. Aglaium Arcadum pauperrimum Apollo prætulit, qui terminos agri sui nunquam excesserat, rure suo contentus. Val. lib. 1. c. 7. Hor. hæc est Vita solutorum misera ambitione, gravique. *Amos 6. nature nature (as Pliny characterizeth him) that she hath made him lower then a God, and is angry with the Gods that any man goes before him ;" and although he hath received much, yet (as + Seneca followes it) "he thinks it an injury that he hath no more, and is so far from giving thanks for his Tribuneship, that he complains he is not Pretor, neither doth that please him, except he may be Consul." Why is he not a Prince, why not a Monarch, why hot an Emperour? Why should one man have so much more then his fellowes, one have all, another nothing? Why should one man be a slave or drudge to another? One surfeit, another starve, one live at ease, another labour, without any hope of better fortune? Thus they grumble, mutter and repine: Not considering that inconstancy of humane affairs, judicially conferring one condition with another, or well weighing their own present estate. What they are now, thou mayest shortly be; and what thou art they shall likely be. Expect a little, confer future and times past with the present, see the event, and comfort thy self with it. It is as well to be discerned in Commonwealths, Cities, Families, as in private men's estates. Italy was once Lord of the world, Rome the Queen of Cities, vaunted herself of two myriades of inhabitants; now that all-commanding country is possessed by petty Princes, Rome a small Village in respect. Greece of old the seat of civility, mother of sciences and humanity; now forlorn, the nurse of barbarism, a den of theeves. Germany then, saith Tacitus, was incult and horrid, now full of magnificent Cities: Athens, Corinth, Carthage, how flou. rishing Cities, now buried in their own ruines? Corvorum, ferarum, aprorum & bestiarum lustra, like so many wildernesses, a receptacle of wild beasts. Venice a poor fisher-town; Paris, London, small Cottages in Cæsar's time, now most noble Emporiums. Valois, Plantagenet and Scaliger how fortunate families, how likely to continue? now quite extinguished and rooted out. He stands aloft to day, full of favour, wealth, honour, and prosperity, in the top of fortune's wheele: to-morrow in prison, worse then nothing, his son's a begger. Thou art a poor servile drudge, Fax populi, a very slave, thy son may come to be a Prince, with Maximinus, Agathocles, &c. a Senator, a Generall of an Army; Thou standest bare to him now, workest for him, drudgest for him and his, takest an almes of him stay but a little, and his next heire peradventure *Præfat. lib. 7. Odit naturam quod infra deos sit; irascitur diis quod quis illi antecedat. De ira cap. 31. lib. 3. Et si multum acceperit, injuriam putat plura non accepisse; non agit pro tribunatu gratias, sed queritur quod non sit ad præturam perductus; neque hæc grata, si desit consulatus. admir. § Of some 90000 inhabitants now. + Lips. shall shall consume all with riot, be degraded, thou exalted, and he shall beg of thee. Thou shalt be his most honorable Patron, he thy devout servant, his posterity shall run, ride, and do as much for thine, as it was with Frisgobald and Cromwel, it may be for thee. Citizens devour countrey Gentlemen, and settle in their seats; after two or three descents, they consume all in riot, it returnes to the City again. a *Novus incola venit; Nam propriæ telluris herũ natura, neq; illum, Nec me, nec quenquam statuit; nos expulit ille: A Lawyer buyes out his poor Client, after a while his Client's posterity buy out him and his; so things go round, ebbe and flow. "Nunc ager Umbreni sub nomine, nuper Ofelli Dictus erat, nulli proprius, sed cedit in usum as he said then, ager cujus, quot habes Dominos? So say I of land, houses, moveables and mony, mine to day, his anon, whose to-morrow? In fine, (as † Machiavel observes)" vertue and prosperity beget rest; rest idleness; idleness riot; riot destruction: From which we come again to good lawes; good lawes engender vertuous actions; vertue, glorie, and prosperity; and 'tis no dishonour then (as Guicciardine adds) for a flouring man, City, or State to come to ruine, nor infelicitie to be subject to the law of nature." Ergo terrena calcanda, sitienda cælestia, therefore (I say) scorn this transitory state, look up to heaven, think not what others are, but what thou art: Quá parte locatus es in re: and what thou shalt be, what thou mayst be. Do (I say) as Christ himself did, when he lived here on earth, imitate him as much as in thee lies. How many great Cæsars, mighty Monarches, Tetrarches, Dynastes, Princes lived in his Dayes, in what plentie, what delicacie, how bravely attended, what a deal of gold and silver, what treasure, how many sumptuous palaces had they, what Provinces and Cities, ample territories, fields, rivers, fountaines, parkes, forrests, lawnes, woods, celles, &c.? Yet Christ had none of all this, he would have none of this, he voluntarily rejected all this, he could not be ignorant, he could not erre in his choice, he contemned all this, he chose that which was safer, better, and more certaine, and lesse to be repented, a mean Reade the story at large in John Fox his Acts and Monuments. * Hor. Sat. 2. ser. lib. 2. + Florent. hist. virtus quietem parat, quies otium, otium porro luxum gencrat, luxus interitum, à quo iterum ad saluberimas &c. Guicciard. in Hiponest; nulla infelicitas subjectum esse legi naturæ, &c. § Persius. estate, estate, even povertie it self; and why dost thou then doubt to follow him, to imitate him, and his Apostles, to imitate all good men: So doe thou tread in his divine steps, and thou shalt not erre eternally, as too many worldlings doe, that runne on in their owne dissolute courses, to their confusion and ruin, thou shalt not do amisse. Whatsoever thy fortune is, be contented with it, trust in him, relie on him, refer thy selfe wholly to him. For know this, in conclusion, Non est volentis nec currentis, sed miserentis Dei, 'tis not as men, but as God will. "The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, bringeth low, and exalteth. (1 Sam. 2. ver. 7. 8.) he lifteth the poor from the dust, and raiseth the begger from the dunghill, to set them amongst Princes, and make them inherit the seat of glory;" 'tis all as he pleaseth, how, and when, and whom; he that appoints the end (though to us unknown) appoints the meancs likewise subordinate to the end. Yea but their present estate crucifies and torments most mortall men, they have no such forecast, to see what may be, what shall likely be, but what is, though not wherefore, or from whom, hoc anget, their present misfortunes grind their soules, and an envious eye which they cast upon other men's prosperities, Vicinumq; pecus grandius uber habet, how rich, how fortunate, how happy is he? But in the mean time he doth not consider the other miseries, his infirmities of body and minde, that accompany his estate, but still reflects upon his own false conceived woes and wants, whereas if the matter were duely examined, he is in no distresse at all, he hath no cause to complain. tolle querelas, Pauper enim non est cui rerum suppetit usus," 66 he is not poore, he is not in need. Nature is content with bread and water; and he that can rest satisfied with that, may contend with Jupiter himselfe for happinesse." In that golden age, somnos dedit umbra salubres, potum quoq; lubricus amnis, the trees gave wholesome shade to sleep under, and the clear rivers drink. The Israelites drank water in the wildernesse; Sampson, David, Saul, Abraham's servant when he went for Isaac's wife, the Samaritan woman, and how many besides might I reckon up, Ægypt, Palestina, whole countries in the ↑ Indies, that drank pure water all their lives. The Persian kings themselves drank no other drink then the water ⚫ Omnes divites qui cœlo et terra frui possunt. Hor. lib. 1. epist. 12. 4 Seneca epist. 15. panem & aquam natura desiderat, & hæc qui habet, ipso cum Jove de felicitate contendat. Cibus simplex famem sedat, vestis tenuis frigius arcet. Senec. epist. 8. + Muffæus et alii. + Bris sonius. VOL. II. * Boethius. |