MEMB. VII. Against Repulse, Abuses, Injuries, Contempts, Disgraces, Contumelies, Slanders, Scoffes, &c. I MAY not yet conclude, or think to appease passions, or quiet the minde, till such time as I have likewise removed some other of their more eminent and ordinary causes, which produce so grievous tortures and discontents. To divert all I cannot hope; to point alone at some few of the chiefest, is that which I aime at. Repulse.] Repulse and disgrace are two main causes of discontent, but, to an understanding man, not so hardly to be taken. Cæsar himself hath been denied; a and when two stand equall in fortune, birth, and all other qualities alike, one of necessitie must lose. Why shouldst thou take it so grievously? It hath been a familiar thing for thee thy self to deny others. If every man might have what he would, we should all be deified, emperours, kings, princes; if whatsoever vain hope suggests, unsatiable appetite affects, our preposterous judgement thinks fit were granted, we should have another chaos in an instant, a meer confusion. It is some satisfaction to him that is repelled, that dignities, honours, offices, are not alwayes given by desert or worth, but for love, affinitie, friendship, affection, b great mens letters, or as commonly they are bought and sold. Honours in court are bestowed, not according to mens vertues and good conditions (as an old courtier observes); but, as every man hath means, or more potent friends, so he is preferred. With us in France (d for so their own countrey man relates) most part the matter is carried by favour and grace; he that can get a great man to be his mediatour, runnes away with all the preferment. Indignissimus plerumque prafertur, Vatinius Catoni, illaudatus laudatissimo : -servi dominantur: aselli Ornantur phaleris; dephalerantur equi. An illiterate fool sits in a mans seat; and the common people d Se a Pædaretus, in 300 Lacedæmoniorum numerum non electus, risit, gratulari se dicens civitatem habere 300 cives se meliores. b Kissing goes by favour. c Æneas Syl. de miser. curial. Dantur honores in curiis, non secundum honores et virtutes: sed ut quisque ditior est atque potentior, eo magis honoratur. sellius, lib. 2. de repub. Gallorum. Favore apud nos et gratiâ plerumque res agitur; et qui commodum aliquem nacti sunt intercessorem, aditum fere habent ad omnes præfecturas. hold him learned, grave, and wise. One professeth (a Cardan well notes) for a thousand crownes; but he deserves not ten; when as he that deserves a thousand cannot get ten. Salarium non dat multis salem. As good horses draw in carts, as coaches; and oftentimes, which Machiavel seconds, b principes non sunt, qui ob insignem virtutem principatu digni sunt; he that is most worthy wants imployment; he that hath skill to be a pilot wants a ship; and he that could govern a commonwealth, a world it self, a king in conceit, wants means to exercise his worth, hath not a poor office to manage. And yet all this while he is a better man that is fit to reign, etsi careat regno, though he want a kingdome, then he that hath one, and knows not how to rule it. A lion serves not alwayes his keeper but oftentimes the keeper the lion; and, as d Polydore Virgil hath it, multi reges, ut pupilli, ob inscitiam non regunt, sed reguntur. Hieron of Syracuse was a brave king, but wanted a kingdom; Perseus of Macedon had nothing of a king but the bare name and title; for he could not govern it: so great places are often ill bestowed, worthy persons unrespected. Many times too the servants have more means then the masters whom they serve; which e Epictetus counts an eye-sore and inconvenient. But who can help it? It is an ordinary thing in these dayes to see a base impudent asse, illiterate, unworthy, unsufficient, to be preferred before his betters, because he can put himself forward, because he looks big, can busle in the world, hath a fair outside, can temporize, collogue, insinuate, or hath good store of friends and mony; whereas a more discreet, modest, and better deserving man shall lie hid or have a repulse. 'Twas so of old, and ever will be, and which Tiresias advised Ulysses in the f poet, Accipe, quâ ratione queas ditescere, &c. is still in use; lie, flatter and dissemble: if not, as he concludes, Ergo pauper eris, then go like a beggar, like a beggar, as thou art. Erasmus, Melancthon, Lipsius, Budæus, Cardan, liv'd and died poor. Gesner was a silly old man, baculo innixus, amongst all those huffing cardinals, swelling bishops, that flourished in his time, and rode on foot-clothes. It is not honesty, learning, worth, wisdom, b Imperitus periti munus occupat, et sic apud vulgus habetur. Ille profitetur mille coronatis, cum nec decem mereatur ; alius e diverso mille dignus, vix decem consequi potest. Epist. dedic. disput. Zeubbeo Bondemontio, et Cosmo Rucelaio. Quam is qui regnat, et regnandi sit imperitus. d Lib. 22. hist. e Ministri locupletiores sunt iis quibus ministratur. f Hor. lib. 2. Sat. 5. с that prefers men, (the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong) but, as the wise man said, a chance, and sometimes a ridiculous chance: bcasus plerumque ridiculus multos elevavit. 'Tis fortunes doings, as they say, which made Brutus now dying exclaim, O misera virtus! ergo nihil quam verba eras! atqui ego te tanquam rem exercebam: sed tu serviebas fortuna. Beleeve it hereafter, O my friends! Vertue serves fortune. Yet be not discouraged (O my well deserving spirits) with this which I have said: it may be otherwise; though seldom, I confesse, yet sometimes it is. But, to your farther content, Ile tell you a tale. In Moronia pia, or Moronia felix, I know not whether, nor how long since, nor in what cathedrall church, a fat prebend fell void. The carcasse scarce cold, many sutors were up in an instant. The first had rich friends, a good purse; and he was resolved to out-bid any man before he would lose it; every man supposed he should carry it. The second was my Lord Bishops chaplain (in whose gift it was); and he thought it his due to have it. The third was nobly born; and he meant to get it by his great parents, patrons, and allies. The fourth stood upon his worth; he had newly found out strange mysteries in chymistry, and other rare inventions, which he would detect to the publike good. The fifth was a painfull preacher; and he was commended by the whole parish where he dwelt; he had all their hands to his certificate. The sixth was the prebendaries son lately deceased; his father died in debt (for it, as they say), left a wife and many poor children. The seventh stood upon fair promises, which to him and his noble friends had been formerly made for the next place in his Lordships gift. The eighth pretended great losses, and what he had suffered for the church, what paines he had taken at home and abroad; and besides he brought noble mens letters. The ninth had married a kinswoman, and he sent his wife to sue for him. The tenth was a forrain doctor, a late convert, and wanted means. The eleventh would exchange for another; he did not like the formers site, could not agree with his neighbours and fellows upon any termes; he would be gone. The twelfth and last was (a suitor in conceit) a right honest, civil, sober man, an excellent scholar, and such a one as lived private in the universitie; but he had neither means nor mony to compasse it; besides he hated all such courses: he could not speak for himself, neither had he any friends to solicite his cause, and therefore made no suit, could not expect, neither did he hope for, or look after it. The good bishop, amongst a jury of compe Sat. Menip. Tale quid est apud Valent. a Solomon, Eccles. 9. 11. Andream, Apolog. manip. 5. apol. 39. titors, thus perplexed, and not yet resolved what to do, or on whom to bestow it, at the last, of his own accord, meer motion, and bountifull nature, gave it freely to the university student, altogether unknown to him but by fame; and, to be brief, the academical scholar had the prebend sent him for a present. The newes was no sooner published abroad, but all good students rejoyced, and were much cheered up with it, though some would not beleeve it; others, as men amazed, said it was a miracle; but one amongst the rest thanked God for it, and said, Nunc juvat tandem studiosum esse, et Deo integro corde servire. You have heard my tale; but, alas! it is but a tale, a meer fiction; 'twas never so, never like to be; and so let it rest. Well, be it so then, they have wealth and honour, fortune and preferment; every man (there's no remedy) must scramble as he may, and shift as he can ; yet Cardan comforted himself with this, a the star Fomahant would make him immortall, and that bafter his decease his books should be found in ladies studies. c Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori. But why shouldst thou take thy neglect, thy canvas, so to heart? It may be thou art not fit; but, as a d child that puts on his fathers shoes, hat, head-piece, brestplate, breeches, or holds his spear, but is neither able to wield the one or wear the other; so wouldst thou doe by such an office, place, or magistracy: thou art unfit; and what is dignity to an unworthy man, but, (as e Salvianus holds) a gold ring in a swines snowt? Thou art a brute. Like a bad actor (so f Plutarch compares such men) in a tragedy, (diadema fert, at vox non auditur) thou wouldst play a kings part, but actest a clowne, speakest like an asse. g Magna petis, Phaethon, et quæ non viribus istis, &c. As James and John, the sons of Zebedy, did ask they knew not what; nescis, temerarie, nescis; thou dost, as another Suffenus, overween thy self; thou art wise in thine own conceit, but in other mens more mature judgement altogether unfit to manage such a businesse. Or be it thou art more deserving then any of thy rank, God in his providence hath reserved thee for some other fortunes: sic Superis visum. Thou art humble, as thou art it may be, hadst thou been preferred, thou wouldst have forgotten God and thy self, insulted over others, a Stella Fomahant immortalitatem dabit. d Qui induit thoracem aut galeam, &c. b Lib. de lib. propriis. dignitas indigno, nisi circulus aureus in naribus suis? f In Lysandro. Met. contemned thy friends, a been a block, a tyrant, or a demi-god; sequiturque superbia formam: b therefore, saith Chrysostome, good men do not alwayes finde grace and favour, lest they should be puffed up with turgent titles, grow insolent and proud. C Injuries, abuses, are very offensive, and so much the more in that they think, veterem ferendo, invitant novam, by taking one, they provoke another: but it is an erroneous opinion: for, if that were true, there would be no end of abusing each other; lis litem generat; 'tis much better with patience to bear, or quietly to put it up. If an asse kick me, saith Socrates, shall I strike him again? and, when his wife Xantippe stroke and misused him, to some friends that would have had him strike her again, he replied that he would not make them sport, or that they should stand by and say Eia, Socrates! cia Xantippe! as we do when dogs fight, animate them the more by clapping of hands. Many men spend themselves, their goods, friends, fortunes, upon small quarrels, and sometimes at other mens procurements, with much vexation of spirit and anguish of minde; all which, with good advice, or mediation of friends, might have been happily composed, or if patience had taken place. Patience, in such cases, is a most soveraign remedy, to put up, conceal, or dissemble it, to forget and forgive, e not seven, but seventy times seven; as often as he repents, forgive him; Luk. 17. 3. as our Saviour enjoyns us, stroken, to turn the other side: as our Apostle perswades us, to recompence no man evill, but, as much as is possible, to have peace with all men not to avenge ourselves, and we shall heap burning coales upon our adversaries head. For, if you put up wrong, (as Chrysostome & comments) you get the victorie; he that loseth his mony, loseth not the conquest in this our philosophy. If he contend with thee, submit thy self unto him first; yeeld to him. Durum et durum non faciunt murum, as the diverb is; two refractory spirits will never agree; the onely means to overcome, is to relent; obsequio vinces. Euclide (in Plutarch), when his brother had angred him, swore he would be revenged; but he gently replied, " Let me not live, if I do not make thee to love me again; upon which meek answer he was pacified. f Flectitur obsequio curvatus ab arbore ramus : Magistratus virum indicat. b Ideo boni viri aliquando gratiam non accipiunt, ne in superbiam eleventur ventositate jactantiæ, ne altitudo numeris negligentiores efficiat. d Injuriarum remedium est oblivio. c Ælian. e Mat. 18. 22. h Mat. 5. 39. f Rom. 12. 17. Si toleras injuriam, victor evadis ; qui enim pecuniis privatus est, non est privatus victoriâ in hac philosophiâ. Dispeream, nisi te ultus fuero: dispeream, nisi ut me deinceps ames effecero. i Joach. Camerarius, Embl. 21. cent. 1. |