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That To Philosophise Is To Learne How To Die
That To Philosophise Is To Learne How To Die
Cicero saith, that to Philosophise is no other thing than for a man to
prepare himselfe to death: which is the reason that studie and contemplation
doth in some sort withdraw our soule from us, and severally employ it from the
body, which is a kind of apprentisage and resemblance of death; or else it is,
that all the wisdome and discourse of the world, doth in the end resolve upon
this point, to teach us not to feare to die. Truly either reason mockes us, or
it only aimeth at our contentment, and in fine, bends all her travell to make
us live well, and as the holy Scripture saith, "at our ease." All the opinions
of the world conclude, that pleasure is our end, howbeit they take divers
meanes unto and for it, else would men reject them at their first coming. For
who would give eare unto him, that for it`s end would establish our paine and
disturbance? The dissentions of philosophicall sects in this case are verbal:
Transcurramus solertissimas nugas;^1 "Let us run over such over - fine
fooleries and subtill trifles." There is more wilfulnesse and wrangling among
them, than pertains to a sacred profession. But what person a man undertakes
to act, he doth ever therewithall personate his owne. Allthough they say, that
in vertue it selfe, the last scope of our aime is voluptuousnes. It pleaseth
me to importune their eares still with this word, which so much offends their
hearing. And if it imply any chief pleasure or exceeding contentments, it is
rather due to the assistance of vertue, than to any other supply,
voluptuousnes being more strong, sinnowie, sturdie, and manly, is but more
seriously voluptuous. And we should give it the name of pleasure, more
favorable, sweeter, and more naturall; and not terme it vigor, from which it
hath his denomination. Should this baser sensuality deserve this faire name,
it should be by competencie, and not by privilege. I finde it lesse void of
incommodities and crosses than vertue. And besides that, her taste is more
fleeting, momentarie, and fading, she hath her fasts, her eyes, and her
travels,^2 and both sweat and bloud. Furthermore she hath particularly so many
wounding passions, and of so severall sorts, and so filthie and loathsome a
societie waiting upon her, that she is equivalent to penitencie. Wee are in
the wrong, to thinke her incommodities serve her as a provocation and
seasoning to her sweetness, as in nature one contrarie is vivified by another
contrarie: and to say, when we come to vertue, that like successes and
difficulties overwhelme it, and yeeld it austere and inaccessible. Whereas
much more properly then unto voluptuousnes, they ennobled, sharpen, animate,
and raise that divine and perfect pleasure, which it meditates and procureth
us. Truly he is verie unworthie her acquaintance, that counter - ballanceth
her cost to his fruit, and knowes neither the graces nor use of it. Those who
go about to instruct us, how her pursuit is very hard and laborious, and her
jovisance^3 well - pleasing and delightfull: what else tell they us, but that
shee is ever unpleasant and irksome? For, what humane meane^4 did ever attaine
unto an absolute enjoying of it? The perfectest have beene content but to
aspire and approach her, without ever possessing her. But they are deceived;
seeing that of all the pleasures we know, the pursute of them is pleasant. The
enterprise is perceived by the qualitie of the thing, which it hath regard
unto: for it is a good portion of the effect, and consubstantiall. That
happiness and felicitie, which shineth in vertue, replenisheth her approaches
and appurtenances, even unto the first entrance and utmost barre. Now of all
the benefits of vertue, the contempt of death is the chiefest, a meane that
furnisheth our life with an ease - full tranquillitie, and gives us a pure and
amiable taste of it: without which every other voluptuousnes is extinguished.
Loe, here the reasons why all rules encounter and agree with this article. And
albeit they all leade us with a common accord to despise griefe, povertie, and
other accidentall crosses, to which man`s life is subject, it is not with an
equall care: as well because accidents are not of such a necessitie, for most
men passe their whole life without feeling any want or povertie, and othersome
without feeling any griefe or sickness, as Xenophilus the Musitian, who lived
an hundred and six years in perfect and continuall health: as also if the
worst happen, death may at all times, and whensoever it shall please us, cut
off all other inconveniences and crosses. But as for death, it is inevitable.
[Footnote 1: Sen. Epist. 117.]
[Footnote 2: Travails, labours.]
[Footnote 3: Enjoyment]
[Footnote 4: Human means.]
Omnes eodem cogimur, omnium
Versatur urna, serius, ocius
Sors exitura, et nos in aeternum
Exilium impositura cymbae,^5
[Footnote 5: Hor. 1. iii. Od. iii. 25]
All to one place are driv`n, of all
Shak`t is the lot - pot, where - hence shall
Sooner or later drawne lots fall,
And to deaths boat for aye enthrall.
And by consequence, if she makes us affeard, it is a continual subject of
torment, and which can no way be eased. There is no starting - hole will hide
us from her, she will finde us wheresoever we are, we may as in a suspected
countrie start and turne here and there: quae quasi saxum Tantalo semper
impendet.^6 "Which evermore hangs like the stone over the head of Tantalus:"
Our lawes doe often condemne and send malefactors to be executed in the same
place where the crime was committed: to which whilest they are going, leade
them along the fairest houses, or entertaine them with the best cheere you
can,
[Footnote 6: Cic. De Fin. 1. i.]
non Siculae dapes
Dulcem elaborabunt saporem:
Non avium, citharaeque cantus
Somnum reducent.^7
[Footnote 7: Hor. 1. iii. Od. i. 12.]
Not all King Denys daintie fare,
Can pleasing taste for them prepare:
No song of birds, no musikes sound
Can lullabie to sleepe profound.
Doe you thinke they can take any pleasure in it? or be any thing
delighted? and that the finall intent of their voiage being still before their
eies, hath not altered and altogether distracted their taste from all these
commodities and allurements?
Audit iter, numeratque dies, spatioque viarum
Metitur vitam, torquetur peste futura.^8
[Footnote 8: Claud. In Ruff. 1. ii. i. 137.]
He heares his journey, counts his daies, so measures he
His life by his waies length, vext with the ill shall be.
The end of our cariere is death, it is the necessarie object of our aime:
if it affright us, how is it possible we should step one foot further without
an ague? The remedie of the vulgar sort is, not to think on int. But from what
brutall stupiditie may so grosse a blindnesse come upon him? he must be made
to bridle his Asse by the taile,
Qui capite ipse suo instituit vestigia retro.^9
[Footnote 9: Lucret. 1. iv. 474.]
Who doth a course contrarie runne
With his head to his course begunne.
It is no marvell if he be so often taken tripping; some doe no sooner
heare the name of death spoken of, but they are afraid, yea the most part will
crosse themselves, as if they heard the Devill named. And because mention is
made of it in mens wils and testaments, I warrant you there is none will set
his hand to them, til the physitian hath given his last doome, and utterly
forsaken him. And God knowes, being then betweene such paine and feare, with
what sound judgment they endure him. For so much as this syllable sounded so
unpleasantly in their eares, and this voice seemed so illboding and unluckie,
the Romans had learned to allay and dilate the same by a Periphrasis. In liew
of saying, he is dead, or he hath ended his daies, they would say, he hath
lived. So it be life, be it past or no, they are comforted: from whom we have
borrowed our phrases quondam, alias, or late such a one. It may haply be, as
the common saying is, the time we live is worth the money we pay for it. I was
borne betweene eleven of the clocke and noone, the last of Februarie 1533,
according to our computation, the yeare beginning the first of Januarie. It is
but a fortnight since I was 39 yeares old. I want at least as much more. If in
the meane time I should trouble my thoughts with a matter so farre from me, it
were but folly. But what? we see both young and old to leave their life after
one selfesame condition. No man departs otherwise from it, than if he but now
came to it, seeing there is no man so crazed,^10 bedrell,^11 or decrepit, so
long as he remembers Methusalem, but thinkes he may yet live twentie yeares.
Moreover, seely^12 creature as thou art, who hath limited the end of thy
daies? Happily thou presumest upon physitians reports. Rather consider the
effect and experience. By the common course of things long since thou livest
by extraordinarie favour. Thou hast alreadie over - past the ordinarie tearmes
of common life: And to prove it, remember but thy acquaintances, and tell me
how many more of them have died before they came to thy age, than have either
attained or outgone the same: yea, and of those that through renoune have
ennobled their life, if thou but register them, I will lay a wager, I will
finde more that have died before they came to five and thirty years, than
after. It is consonant with reason and pietie, to take example by the humanity
of Iesus Christ, who ended his humane life at three and thirtie yeares. The
greatest man that ever was, being no more than a man, I meane Alexander the
Great, ended his dayes, and died also of that age. How many severall meanes
and waies hath death to surprise us!
[Footnote 10: Infirm.]
[Footnote 11: Bedridden.]
[Footnote 12: Simple, weak.]
Quid quisque vitet, nunquam homini satis
Cautum est in horas^13
[Footnote 13: Hor. 1. ii. Od. xiii. 13.]
A man can never take good heed,
Hourely what he may shun and speed.
I omit to speak of agues and pleurisies; who would ever have imagined
that a Duke of Brittanie should have beene stifled to death in a throng of
people, as whilome was a neighbour of mine at Lyons, when Pope Clement made
his entrance there? Hast thou not seene one of our late Kings slaine in the
middest of his sports? and one of his ancestors die miserably by the chocke^14
of an hog? Eschilus forethreatned by the fall of an house, when he stood most
upon his guard, strucken dead by the fall of a tortoise shell, which fell out
of the tallants of an eagle flying in the air? and another choaked with the
kernell of a grape? And an Emperour die by the scratch of a combe, whilest he
was combing his head? And Aemylius Lepidus with hitting his foot against a
doore - seele? And Aufidius with stumbling against the Consull - chamber doore
as he was going in thereat? And Cornelius Gallus, the Praetor, Tigillinus,
Captaine of the Romane watch, Lodowike, sonne of Guido Gonzaga, Marquis of
Mantua, end their daies betweene womens thighs? And of a farre worse example
Speusippus, the Platonian philosopher, and one of our Popes? Poore Bebius a
Judge, whilest he demurreth the sute of a plaintife but for eight daies,
behold, his last expired: And Caius Iulius a Physitian, whilest he was
annointing the eies of one of his patients, to have his owne sight closed for
ever by death. And if amongst these examples, I may adde one of a brother of
mine, called Captain Saint Martin, a man of three and twentie yeares of age,
who had alreadie given good testimonie of his worth and forward valour,
playing at tennis, received a blow with a ball, that hit him a little above
the right eare, without appearance of any contusion, bruise, or hurt, and
never sitting or resting upon it, died within six hours after of an apoplexie,
which the blow of the ball caused in him. These so frequent and ordinary
examples, hapning, and being still before our eies, how is it possible for man
to forgo or forget the remembrance of death? and why should it not continually
seeme unto us, that shee is still ready at hand to take us by the throat? What
matter is it, will you say unto me, how and in what manner it is, so long as a
man doe not trouble and vex himselfe therewith? I am of this opinion, that
howsoever a man may showed or hide himselfe from her dart, yea, were it under
an oxe - hide, I am not the man would shrinke backe: it sufficeth me to live
at my ease; and the best recreation I can have, that doe I ever take; in other
matters, as little vain glorious, and exemplare as you list.
[Footnote 14: Shock.]
- - - praetulerim delirus inersque videri,
Dum mea delectent mala me, vel denique fallant,
Quam sapere et ringi.^15
[Footnote 15: Hor. 1. ii. Epist. ii. 126.]
A dotard I had rather seeme, and dull,
Sooner my faults may please make me a gull,
Than to be wise, and beat my vexed scull.
But it is folly to thinke that way to come unto it. They come, they goe,
they trot, they daunce: but no speech of death. All that is good sport. But if
she be once come, and on a sudden and openly surprise, either them, their
wives, their children, or their friends, what torments, what outcries, what
rage, and what despaire doth then overwhelme them? saw you ever anything so
drooping, so changed, and so distracted? A man must looke to it, and in better
times foresee it. And might that brutish carelessenesse lodge in the minde of
a man of understanding (which I find altogether impossible) she sells us her
ware at an overdeere rate: were she an enemie by mans wit to be avoided, I
would advise man to borrow the weapons of cowardlinesse: but since it may not
be, and that be you either a coward or a runaway, an honest or valiant man,
she overtakes you,
Nempe et fugacem persequitur virum,
Nec parcit imbellis juventae
Poplitibus, timidoque tergo.^16
[Footnote 16: Hor. 1. iii. Od. ii. 14.]
Shee persecutes the man that flies,
Shee spares not weake youth to surprise,
But on their hammes and backe turn`d plies.
And that no temper of cuirace^17 may shield or defend you,
[Footnote 17: Cuirass.]
Ille licet ferro cautus se condat et aere,
Mors tamen inclusum protrahet inde caput.^18
[Footnote 18: Propert. 1. iii. et xvii. 25.]
Though he with yron and brasse his head empale,
Yet death his head enclosed thence will hale.
Let us learne to stand, and combat her with a resolute minde. And being
to take the greatest advantage she hath upon us from her, let us take a cleane
contrary way from the common, let us remove her strangenesse from her, let us
converse, frequent, and acquaint our selves with her, let us have nothing so
much in minde as death, let us at all times, and seasons, and in the ugliest
manner that may be, yea with all faces shapen and represent the same unto our
imagination. At the stumbling of a horse, at the fall of a stone, at the least
prick with a pinne, let us presently ruminate and say with our selves, what if
it were death it selfe? and thereupon let us take heart of grace, and call our
wits together to confront her. Amiddest our bankets, feasts, and pleasures,
let us ever have this restraint or object before us, that is, the remembrance
of our condition, and let not pleasure so much mislead or transport us, that
we altogether neglect or forget, how many waies, our joyes, or our feastings,
be subject unto death, and by how many hold - fasts shee threatens us and
them. So did the Aegyptians, who in the middest of their banquetings, and in
the full of their greatest cheere, caused the anatomie^19 of a dead man to be
brought before them, as a memorandum and warning to their guests.
[Footnote 19: Skeleton.]
Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum,
Grata superveniet; quae non sperabitur, hora.^20
[Footnote 20: Hor. 1. i. Epist. iv. 13.]
Thinke every day shines on thee as thy last,
Welcome it will come, whereof hope was past.
It is uncertaine where death looks for us; let us expect her everie
where: the premeditation of death, is a forethinking of libertie. He who hath
learned to die, hath unlearned to serve. There is no evill in life, for him
that hath well conceived, how the privation of life is no evill. To know how
to die, doth free us from all subjection and constraint. Paulus Emilius
answered one, whom that miserable king of Macedon his prisoner sent to entreat
him he would not lead him in triumph, "Let him make that request unto
himselfe." Verily, if Nature afford not some helpe in all things, it is very
hard that art and industrie should goe farre before. Of my selfe, I am not
much given to melancholy, but rather to dreaming and sluggishness. There is
nothing wherewith I have ever more entertained my selfe, than with the
imaginations of death, yea in the most licentious times of my age.
lucundum, cum aetas florida ver ageret.^21
[Footnote 21: Catul. Eleg. iv. 16.]
When my age flourishing
Did spend its pleasant spring.
Being amongst faire Ladies, and in earnest play, some have thought me busied,
or musing with my selfe, how to digest some jealousie, or meditating on the
uncertaintie of some conceived hope, when God he knowes, I was entertaining my
selfe with the remembrance of some one or other, that but few daies before was
taken with a burning fever, and of his sodaine end, comming from such a feast
or meeting where I was my selfe, and with his head full of idle conceits, of
love, and merry glee; supposing the same, either sickness or end, to be as
neere me as him.
Iam fuerit, nec post, unquam revocare licebit.^22
[Footnote 22: Lucr. 1. iii. 947.]
Now time would be, no more
You can this time restore.
I did no more trouble my selfe or frowne at such conceit,^23 than at any
other. It is impossible we should not apprehend or feele some motions or
startings at such imaginations at the first, and comming sodainely upon us:
but doubtlesse, he that shall manage and meditate upon them with an impartiall
eye, they will assuredly, in tract^24 of time, become familiar to him:
Otherwise, for my part, I should be in continuall feare and agonie; for no man
did ever more distrust his life, nor make lesse account of his continuance:
Neither can health, which hitherto I have so long enjoied, and which so
seldome hath beene crazed,^25 lengthen my hopes, nor any sicknesse shorten
them of it. At every minute me thinkes I make an escape. And I uncessantly
record unto my selfe, that whatsoever may be done another day, may be effected
this day. Truly hazards and dangers doe little or nothing approach us at our
end: And if we consider, how many more there remaine, besides this accident,
which in number more than millions seeme to threaten us, and hang over us; we
shall find, that be we sound or sicke, lustie or weake, at sea or at land,
abroad or at home, fighting or at rest, in the middest of a battell or in our
beds, she is ever alike neere unto us. Nemo altero fragilior est, nemo in
crastinum sui certior: "No man is weaker then other; none surer of himselfe
(to live) till to morrow." Whatsoever I have to doe before death, all leasure
to end the same seemeth short unto me, yea were it but of one houre. Some
body, not long since turning over my writing tables, found by chance a
memoriall of something I would have done after my death: I told him (as indeed
it was true), that being but a mile from my house, and in perfect health and
lustie, I had made haste to write it, because I could not assure my self I
should ever come home in safety: As one that am ever hatching of mine owne
thoughts, and place them in my selfe: I am ever prepared about that which I
may be: nor can death (come when she please) put me in mind of any new thing.
A man should ever, as much as in him lieth, be ready booted to take his
journey, and above all things, looke he have then nothing to doe but with
himselfe.
[Footnote 23: Idea.]
[Footnote 24: Course.]
[Footnote 25: Enfeebled.]
Quid brevi fortes jaculamur aevo
Multa:^26
[Footnote 26: Hor. 1. ii. Od. xiv.]
To aime why are we ever bold,
At many things in so short hold?
For then we shall have worke sufficient, without any more accrease. Some
man complaineth more that death doth hinder him from the assured course of a
hoped for victorie, than of death it selfe; another cries out, he should give
place to her, before he have married his daughter, or directed the course of
his childrens bringing up; another bewaileth he must forgoe his wives company;
another moaneth the losse of his children, the chiefest commodities of his
being. I am now by meanes of the mercy of God in such a taking, that without
regret or grieving at any worldly matter, I am prepared to dislodge,
whensoever he shall please to call me: I am every where free: my farewell is
soone taken of all my friends, except of my selfe. No man did ever prepare
himselfe to quit the world more simply and fully, or more generally spake of
all thoughts of it, than I am fully assured I shall doe. The deadest deaths
are the best.
- - - Miser, o miser (aiunt) omnia ademit.
Vna dies infesta mihi tot praemia vitae.^27
[Footnote 27: Lucr. 1. iii. 942.]
O wretch, O wretch (friends cry), one day,
All joyes of life hath tane away:
And the builder,
- - - manent (saith he) opera interrupta, minaeque
Murorum ingentes.^28
[Footnote 28: Virg. AEn. 1. iv. 88.]
The workes unfinisht lie,
And walls that threatned hie.
A man should designe nothing so long afore - hand, or at least with such
an intent, as to passionate^29 himselfe to see the end of it; we are all borne
to be doing.
[Footnote 29: Long passionately.]
Cum moriar, medium solvar et inter opus.^30
[Footnote 30: Ovid. Am. 1. ii. El. x. 36.]
When dying I my selfe shall spend,
Ere halfe my businesse come to end.
I would have a man to be doing, and to prolong his lives offices as much
as lieth in him, and let death seize upon me whilest I am setting my cabiges,
carelesse of her dart, but more of my unperfect garden. I saw one die, who
being at his last gaspe, uncessantly complained against his destinie, and that
death should so unkindly cut him off in the middest of an historie which he
had in hand, and was now come to the fifteenth or sixteenth of our Kings.
Illud in his rebus non addunt, nec tibi earum,
Iam desiderium rerum super insidet und.^31
[Footnote 31: Lucr. 1. iii. 944.]
Friends adde not that in this case, now no more
Shalt thou desire, or want things wisht before.
A man should rid himselfe of these vulgar and hurtful humours. Even as
Churchyards were first place adjoyning unto churches, and in the most
frequented places of the City, to enure (as Lycurgus said) the common people,
women and children, not to be skared at the sight of a dead man, and to the
end that continuall spectacle of bones, sculs, tombes, graves and burials,
should forewarne us of our condition, and fatall end.
Quin etiam exhilarare viris convivia caede
Mos olim, et miscere epulis spectacula dira
Certantum ferro, saepe et super ipsa cadentum
Pocula, respersis non parco sanguine mensis.^32
[Footnote 32: Syl. Ital. 1. xi. 51.]
Nay more, the manner was to welcome guests,
And with dire shewes of slaughter to mix feasts.
Of them that fought at sharpe, and with bords tainted
Of them with much bloud, who o`er full cups fainted.
And even as the Aegyptians after their feastings and carousings caused a
great image of death to be brought in an shewed to the guests and by -
standers, by one that cried aloud, "Drinke and be merry, for such shalt thou
be when thou art dead:" So have I learned this custome or lesson, to have
alwaies death, not only in my imagination, but continually in my mouth. And
there is nothing I desire more to be informed of than of the death of men;
that is to say, what words, what countenance, and what face they shew at their
death; and in reading of histories, which I so attentively observe. It
appeareth by the shuffling and hudling up^33 of my examples, I affect^34 no
subject so particularly as this. Were I a composer of books, I would keepe a
register, commented of the divers deaths, which in teaching men to die, should
after teach them to live. Dicearcus made one of that title, but of another and
lesse profitable end. Some man will say to mee, the effect exceeds the thought
so farre, that there is no fence so sure, or cunning so certaine, but a man
shall either lose or forget if he come once to that point; let them say what
they list: to premeditate on it, giveth no doubt a great advantage: and it is
nothing, at the least, to goe so farre without dismay or alteration, or
without an ague? There belongs more to it: Nature her selfe lends her hand,
and gives us courage. If it be a short and violent death, wee have no leisure
to feare it; if otherwise, I perceive that according as I engage my selfe in
sicknesse, I doe naturally fall into some disdaine and contempt of life. I
finde that I have more adoe to digest this resolution that I shall die when I
am in health, than I have when I am troubled with a fever: forsomuch as I have
no more such fast hold on the commodities of life, whereof I begin to lose the
use and pleasure, and view death in the face with a lesse undanted looke,
which makes me hope, that the further I goe from that, and the nearer I
approach to this, so much more easily doe I enter in composition for their
exchange. Even as I have tried in many other occurrences, which Caesar
affirmed, that often some things seeme greater, being farre from us, than if
they bee neere at hand: I have found that being in perfect health, I have much
more beene frighted with sicknesse, than when I have felt it. The jollitie
wherein I live, the pleasure and the strength make the other seeme so
disproportionable from that, that by imagination I amplifie these commodities
by one moitie, and apprehended them much more heavie and burthensome, than I
feele them when I have them upon my shoulders. The same I hope will happen to
me of death. Consider we by the ordinary mutations, and daily declinations
which we suffer, how Nature deprives us of the sight of our losse and
empairing; what hath an aged man left him of his youths vigor, and of his
forepast life?
[Footnote 33: Collecting.]
[Footnote 34: Like.]
Heu senibus vitae portio quanta manet!^35
[Footnote 35: Cor. Gal. 1. i. 16.]
Alas to men in yeares how small
A part of life is left in all?
Caesar, to a tired and crazed^36 Souldier of his guard, who in the open
street came to him, to beg leave he might cause himselfe to be put to death;
viewing his decrepit behaviour, answered pleasantly: "Doest thou thinke to be
alive then?" Were man all at once to fall into it, I doe not thinke we should
be able to beare such a change, but being faire and gently led on by her hand,
in a slow, and as it were unperceived descent, by little and little, and step
by step, she roules us into that miserable state, and day by day seekes to
acquaint us with it. So that when youth failes in us, we feele, nay we
perceive no shaking or transchange at all in our selves: which in essence and
veritie is a harder death, than that of a languishing and irkesome life, or
that of age. Forsomuch as the leape from an ill being unto a not being, is not
so dangerous or steepie; as it is from a delightfull and flourishing being
unto a painfull and sorrowfull condition. A weake bending, and faint stopping
bodie hath lesse strength to beare and under goe a heavie burden: So hath our
soule. She must bee rouzed and raised against the violence and force of this
adversarie. For as it is impossible she should take any rest whilest she
feareth: whereof if she be assured (which is a thing exceeding humane^37
condition) she may boast that it is impossible unquietnesse, torment, and
feare, much lesse the least displeasure should lodge in her.
[Footnote 36: Diseased.]
[Footnote 37: Human.]
Non vultus instantis tyranni
Mente quatit solida, neque Auster,
Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae,
Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus.^38
[Footnote 38: Hor. 1. iii. Od. iii.]
No urging tyrants threatning face,
Where minde is found can it displace,
No troublous wind the rough seas Master,
Nor Joves great hand, the thunder - caster.
She is made Mistris of her passions and concupiscence, Lady of
indulgence, of shame, of povertie, and of all fortunes injuries. Let him that
can, attaine to this advantage: Herein consists the true and soveraigne
liberty, that affords us meanes wherewith to jeast and make a scorne of force
and injustice, and to deride imprisonment, gives,^39 or fetters.
[Footnote 39: Gyves, shackles.]
- - - in manicis, et
Compedibus, saevo te sub custode tenebo.
Ipse Deus simul atque volam, me solvet: opinor,
Hoc sentit, moriar. Mors ultima linea rerum est.^40
[Footnote 40: Hor. 1. i. Ep. xvi. 76.]
In gyves and fetters I will hamper thee,
Under a Jayler that shall cruell be:
Yet, when I will, God me deliver shall,
He thinkes, I shall die: death is end of all.
Our religion hath had no surer humane foundation than the contempt of
life. Discourse of reason doth not only call and summon us unto it. For why
should we feare to lose a thing, which being lost, cannot be moaned? but also,
since we are threatened by so many kinds of death, there is no more
inconvenience to feare them all, than to endure one: what matter is it when it
commeth, since it is unavoidable? Socrates answered one that told him, "The
thirty tyrants have condemned thee to death." "And Nature them," said he. What
fondnesse is it to carke and care so much, at that instant and passage from
all exemption of paine and care? As our birth brought us the birth of all
things, so shall our death the end of all things. Therefore is it as great
follie to weepe, we shall not live a hundred yeeres hence, as to waile we
lived not a hundred yeeres agoe. "Death is the beginning of another life." So
wept we, and so much did it cost us to enter into this life; and so did we
spoile us of our ancient vaile in entring into it. Nothing can be grievous
that is but once. Is it reason so long to fear a thing of so short time? Long
life or short life is made all one by death. For long or short is not in thing
that are no more. Aristotle saith, there are certaine little beasts alongst
the river Hyspanis, that live but one day: she which dies at 8 o`clocke in the
morning, dies in her youth, and she that dies at 5 in the afternoon, dies in
her decrepitude, who of us doth not laugh, when we shall see this short moment
of continuance to be had in consideration of good or ill fortune? The most and
the least is ours, if we compare it with eternitie, or equal it to the lasting
of mountains, rivers, stars, and trees, or any other living creature, is not
lesse ridiculous. But nature compels us to it. Depart (saith she) out of this
world, even as you came into it. The same way you came from death to life,
returne without passion or amazement, from life to death: your death is but a
peece of the worlds order, and but a parcell of the worlds life.
- - - Inter se mortales mutua vivunt,
Et quasi cursores vitae lampada tradunt.^41
[Footnote 41: Lucret, ii. 74, 77.]
Mortal men live by mutuall entercourse:
And yeeld their life - torch, as men in a course.
Shal I not change this goodly contexture of things for you? It is the
condition of your creation: death is a part of yourselves: you flie from
yourselves: The being you enjoy is equally shared between life and death.
The first day of your birth doth as wel address you to die, as to live.
Prima quae vitam dedit, hora, carpsit.^42
[Footnote 42: Sen. Her. Sur. chor. iii]
The first houre, that to men
Gave life, strait, cropt it then.
Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet.^43
[Footnote 43: Manil. Ast. 1. iv.]
As we are borne we die; the end
Doth of th` original depend.
All the time you live, you steale it from death: it is at her charge. The
continual worke of your life, is to contrive death: you are in death, during
the time you continue in life: for, you are after death, when you are no
longer living. Or if you had rather have it so, you are dead after life: but
during life, you are still dying: and death doth more rudely touch the dying
than the dead, and more lively and essentially. If you have profited by life,
you have also beene fed thereby, depart then satisfied.
Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis?^44
[Footnote 44: Lucret. 1. iii. 982.]
Why like a full - fed guest,
Depart you not to rest?
If you have not known how to make use of it: if it were unprofitable to
you, what need you care to have lost it? to what end would you enjoy it
longer?
- - - cur amplius addere quaeris
Rursum quod pereat male, et ingratum occidat omne?^45
[Footnote 45: Lucret. 1. iii. 989.]
Why seek you more to gaine, what must againe
All perish ill, and passe with griefe or paine?
Life in itselfe is neither good nor evil: it is the place of good or
evil, according as you prepare it for them. And if you have lived one day, you
have seene all: one day is equal to all other daies. There is no other light,
there is no other night. This Sunne, this Moone, these Starres, and this
disposition, is the very same which your forefathers enjoyed, and which shall
also entertaine your posteritie.
Non alium videre patres, aliumye nepotes
Aspicient.^46.
[Footnote 46: Manil. i. 522.]
No other saw our Sires of old,
No other shall their sonnes behold.
And if the worst happen, the distribution and varietie of all the acts of
my comedie, is performed in one yeare. If you have observed the course of my
foure seasons; they containe the infancie, the youth, the viriltie, and the
old age of the world. He hath plaied his part: he knowes no other wilinesse
belonging to it, but to begin againe, it will ever be the same, and no other.
- - - Versamur ibidem, atque insumus usque,^47
[Footnote 47: Lucret, 1. iii. 123.]
We still in one place turne about,
Still there we are, now in, now out.
Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus.^48
[Footnote 48: Virg. Georg. 1. ii. 403.]
The yeare into it selfe is cast
By those same steps, that it hath past.
I am not purposed to devise you other new sports.
Nam tibi praeterea quod machiner, inveniamque
Quod placeat nihil est; eadem sunt omnia semper.^49
[Footnote 49: Lucret. 1. ii. 978.]
Else nothing, that I can devise or frame,
Can please thee, for all things are still the same.
Make roome for others, as others have done for you. Equalitie is the
chiefe ground - worke of equitie, who can complaine to be comprehended where
all are contained? So may you live long enough, you shall never diminish
anything from the time you have to die: it is bootlesse; so long shall you
continue in that state which you feare, as if you had died being in your
swathing - clothes, and when you were sucking.
- - - licet, quot vis, vivendo vincere secla.
Mors aeterna tamen, nihilominus illa manebit.^50
[Footnote 50: Ib. 1126.]
Though yeares you live, as many as you will,
Death is eternall, death remaineth still.
And I will so please you, that you shall have no discontent.
In vera nescis nullum fore morte alium te,
Qui possit vivus tibi te lugere peremptum,
Stansque jacentem.^51
[Footnote 51: Id. 1. iii. 9.]
Thou know`st not there shall be not other thou,
When thou art dead indeed, that can tell how
Alive to waile thee dying.
Standing to waile thee lying.
Nor shall you wish for life, which you so much desire
Nec sibi enim quisquam tum se vitamque requirit,^52
Nec desiderium nostri nos afficit ullum.^53
[Footnote 52: Ib. 963.]
[Footnote 53: Ib. 966.]
For then none for himselfe himselfe or life requires:
Nor are we of our selves affected with desires.
Death is lesse to be feared than nothing, if there were anything lesse
than nothing.
- - - multo mortem minus ad nos esse putandum,
Si minus esse potest quam quod nihil esse videmus.^54
[Footnote 54: Ib. 970.]
Death is much less to us, we ought esteeme,
If lesse may be, than what doth nothing seeme.
Nor alive, nor dead, it doth concern you nothing. Alive because you are:
Dead, because you are no more. Moreover, no man dies before his houre. The
time you leave behinde was no more yours than that which was before your
birth, and concerneth you no more.
Respice enim quam nil ad nos anteacta vetustas
Temporis aeterni fuerit.^55
[Footnote 55: Ib. 1016.]
For marke, how all antiquitie foregone
Of all time ere we were, to us was none.
Wheresoever your life ended, there is it all. The profit of life consists
not in the space, but rather in the use. Some man hath lived long, that hath a
short life. Follow it whilst you have time. It consists not in number of
yeeres, but in your will, that you have lived long enough. Did you thinke you
should never come to the place, where you were still going? There is no way
but hath an end. And if company may solace you, doth not the whole world walke
the same path?
- - - Omnia te, vita perfuncta, sequentur.^56
[Footnote 56: Ib. 1012.]
Life past, all things at last
Shall follow thee as thou hast past.
Doe not all things move as you doe, or keepe your course? Is there
anything grows not old together with yourselfe? A thousand men, a thousand
beasts, and a thousand other creatures die in the very instant that you die.
Nam nox nulla diem, neque noctem aurora sequuta est,
Que non audierit mistus vagitibus aegris
Ploratus, mortis comites et funeris atri.^57
[Footnote 57: Id. 1. ii. 587.]
No night ensued day light; no morning followed night,
Which heard not moaning mixt with sick - mens groaning,
With deaths and funerals joyned was that moaning.
To what end recoile you from it, if you cannot goe backe. You have seene
many who have found good in death, ending thereby many many miseries. But have
you seene any that hath received hurt thereby? Therefore it is mere
simplicitie to condemne a thing you never approve, neither by yourselfe nor
any other. Why doest thou complaine of me and of destinie? Doe we offer thee
any wrong? is it for thee to direct us, or for us to governe thee? Although
thy age be not come to her period, thy life is. A little man is a whole man as
well as a great man. Neither men nor their lives are measured by the Ell.
Chiron refused immortalitie, being informed of the conditions thereof, even by
the God of time and of continuance, Saturne his father. Imagine truly how much
an ever - during life would be lesse tolerable and more painfull to a man,
than is the life which I have given him. Had you not death you would then
uncessantly curse, and cry out against me, that I had deprived you of it. I
have of purpose and unwittingly blended some bitternesse amongst it, that so
seeing the commoditie of its use, I might hinder you from over - greedily
embracing, or indiscreetly calling for it. To continue in this moderation that
is, neither to fly from life nor to run to death (which I require of you) I
have tempered both the one and other betweene sweetnes and sowrenes. I first
taught Thales, the chiefest of your Sages and Wisemen, that to live and die
were indifferent, which made him answer one very wisely, who asked him
wherefore he died not: "Because," said he, "it is indifferent. The water, the
earth, the aire, the fire, and other members of this my universe, are no more
the instruments of thy life than of thy death. Why fearest thou thy last day?
He is no more guiltie, and conferreth no more to thy death, than any of the
others. It is not the last step that causeth weariness: it only declares it.
All daies march towards death, only the last comes to it." Behold heere the
good precepts of our universall mother Nature. I have oftentimes bethought my
self whence it proceedeth, that in times of warre, the visage of death
(whether wee see it in us or in others) seemeth without all comparison much
lesse dreadful and terrible unto us, than in our houses, or in our beds,
otherwise it should be an armie of Physitians and whiners, and she ever being
one, there must needs bee much more assurance amongst countrie - people and of
base condition, than in others. I verily believe, these fearefull lookes, and
astonishing countenances wherewith we encompass it, are those that more amaze
and terrifie us than death: a new forme of life; the out cries of mothers; the
wailing of women and children; the visitation of dismaid and swouning friends;
the assistance of a number of pale - looking, distracted, and whining
servants; a darke chamber; tapers burning round about; our couch beset round
with Physitians and Preachers; and to conclude, nothing but horror and
astonishment on every side of us: are wee not already dead and buried? The
very children are afraid of their friends, when they see them masked; and so
are we. The maske must as well be taken from things as from men, which being
removed, we shall find nothing hid under it, but the very same death, that a
seely^58 varlet, or a simple maid - servant, did latterly suffer without
amazement or feare. Happie is that death which takes all leasure from the
preparations of such an equipage.
[Footnote 58: Weak, simple.]
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