The Major Works (English Library) (45 page)

19. [Be substantially great in thy self, and more than thou appearest unto others; and let the World be deceived in thee, as they are in the Lights of Heaven. Hang early plummets upon the heels of Pride, and let Ambition have but an Epicycle and narrow circuit in thee. Measure not thy self by thy morning shadow, but by the extent of thy grave, and Reckon thy self above the Earth by the line thou must be contented with under it. Spread not into boundless Expansions either of designs or desires. Think not that mankind liveth but for a few, and that the rest are born but to serve those Ambitions, which make but flies of Men and wildernesses of whole Nations. Swell not into vehement actions which imbroil and confound the Earth; but be one of those violent ones which force the Kingdom of Heaven.
²⁶
If thou must needs Rule, be
Zeno
’s King, and enjoy that Empire which every Man gives himself.] He who is thus his own Monarch contentedly sways the Scepter of himself, not envying the Glory of Crowned Heads and Elohims
²⁷
of the Earth. Could the World unite in the practise of that despised train of Virtues, which the Divine Ethicks of our Saviour hath so inculcated unto us, the furious face of things must disappear, Eden would be yet to be found, and the Angels might look down not with pity, but Joy upon us.

20. Though the Quickness of thine Ear were able to reach the noise of the Moon, which some think it maketh in it’s rapid revolution;
²⁸
though the number of thy Ears should equal
Argus
his Eyes; yet stop them all with the wise man’s wax,
²⁹
and be deaf unto the suggestions of Talebearers, Calumniators,
Pickthank or Malevolent Delators,
³⁰
who while quiet Men sleep, sowing the Tares of discord and division, distract the tranquillity of Charity and all friendly Society. These are the Tongues that set the world on fire, cankers of reputation, and, like that of
Jonas
his Gourd, wither a good name in a night.
³¹
Evil Spirits may sit still while these Spirits walk about, and perform the business of Hell. To speak more strictly, our corrupted hearts are the Factories of the Devil, which may be at work without his presence. For when that circumventing Spirit hath drawn Malice, Envy, and all unrighteousness unto well rooted habits in his disciples, iniquity then goes on upon its own legs, and if the gate of Hell were shut up for a time, Vice would still be fertile and produce the fruits of Hell. Thus when God forsakes us, Satan also leaves us. For such offenders he looks upon as sure and sealed up, and his temptations then needless unto them.

21. Annihilate not the Mercies of God by the Oblivion of Ingratitude. For Oblivion is a kind of Annihilation, and for things to be as though they had not been is like unto never being. Make not thy Head a Grave, but a Repository of God’s mercies. Though thou hadst the Memory of
Seneca
, or
Simonides
, and Conscience, the punctual Memorist within us, yet trust not to thy Remembrance in things which need Phylacteries.
³²
Register not only strange but merciful occurrences: Let
Ephemerides
not
Olympiads
³³
give thee account of his mercies. Let thy Diaries stand thick with dutiful Mementos and Asterisks of acknowledgment. And to be compleat and forget nothing, date not his mercy from thy nativity, Look beyond the World, and before the
Æra
of
Adam
.

22. Paint not the Sepulcher of thy self, and strive not to beautify thy corruption. Be not an Advocate for thy Vices, nor call for many Hour-Glasses to justify thy imperfections. Think
not that always good which thou thinkest thou canst always make good, nor that concealed which the Sun doth not behold. That which the Sun doth not now see will be visible when the Sun is out, and the Stars are fallen from Heaven.
³⁴
Mean while there is no darkness unto Conscience, which can see without Light, and in the deepest obscurity give a clear Draught of things, which the Cloud of dissimulation hath conceal’d from all eyes. There is a natural standing Court within us, examining, acquitting, and condemning at the Tribunal of our selves, wherein iniquities have their natural Theta’s,
³⁵
and no nocent
³⁶
is absolved by the verdict of himself. And therefore although our transgressions shall be tryed at the last bar, the process need not be long: for the Judge of all knoweth all, and every Man will nakedly know himself. And when so few are like to plead not Guilty, the Assize must soon have an end.

23. Comply with some humors, bear with others, but serve none. Civil complacency consists with decent honesty: Flattery is a Juggler, and no Kin unto Sincerity. But while thou main-tainest the plain path, and scornest to flatter others, fall not into self Adulation, and become not thine own Parasite. Be deaf unto thy self, and be not betrayed at home. Self-credulity, pride, and levity lead unto self-Idolatry. There is no
Damocles
like unto self opinion, nor any
Siren
to our own fawning Conceptions. To magnify our minor things, or hug our selves in our apparitions; to afford a credulous Ear unto the clawing suggestions of fancy; to pass our days in painted mistakes of our selves; and though we behold our own blood,
³⁷
to think our selves the Sons of
Jupiter
;
³⁸
are blandishments of self love, worse than outward delusion. By this Imposture Wise Men sometimes are Mistaken in their Elevation, and look above themselves. And Fools, which are Antipodes unto the Wise, conceive themselves
to be but their
Periæci
,
³⁹
and in the same parallel with them.

24. Be not a
Hercules furens
⁴⁰
abroad, and a Poltron
⁴¹
within thy self. To chase our Enemies out of the Field, and be led captive by our Vices; to beat down our Foes, and fall down to our Concupiscences; are Solecisms in Moral Schools, and no Laurel attends them. To well manage our Affections, and wild Horses of
Plato
,
⁴²
are the highest Circenses;
⁴³
and the noblest Digladiation
⁴⁴
is in the Theater of our selves: for therein our inward Antagonists, not only like common Gladiators, with ordinary Weapons and down right Blows make at us, but also like Retiary and Laqueary Combatants,
⁴⁵
with Nets, Frauds, and Entanglements fall upon us. Weapons for such combats are not to be forged at
Lipara
:
⁴⁶
Vulcan
’s Art doth nothing in this internal Militia: wherein not the Armour of
Achilles
, but the Armature of St.
Paul
,
⁴⁷
gives the Glorious day, and Triumphs not Leading up into Capitols, but up into the highest Heavens. And therefore while so many think it the only valour to command and master others, study thou the Dominion of thy self, and quiet thine own Commotions. Let Right Reason be thy
Lycurgus
, and lift up thy hand unto the Law of it; move by the Intelligences
⁴⁸
of the superiour Faculties, not by the Rapt
⁴⁹
of Passion, not merely by that of Temper and Constitution. They who are merely carried on by the Wheel of such Inclinations, without the Hand and Guidance of Sovereign Reason, are but the Automatous part of mankind, rather lived than living, or at least underliving themselves.

25. Let not Fortune, which hath no name in Scripture, have any in thy Divinity. Let Providence, not Chance, have the honour of thy acknowledgments, and be thy
Oedipus
in Contingences.
⁵⁰
Mark well the Paths and winding Ways thereof; but be not too wise in the Construction, or sudden in the Application. The Hand of Providence writes often by Abbreviatures, Hieroglyphicks or short Characters,
⁵¹
which, like the Laconism on the Wall,
⁵²
are not to be made out but by a Hint or Key from that Spirit which indited them. Leave future occurrences to their uncertainties, think that which is present thy own; And since ’tis easier to foretell an Eclipse, than a foul Day at some distance, Look for little Regular below. Attend with patience the uncertainty of Things, and what lieth yet unexerted
⁵³
in the Chaos of Futurity. The uncertainty and ignorance of Things to come makes the World new unto us by unexpected Emergences, whereby we pass not our days in the trite road of affairs affording no Novity;
⁵⁴
for the novellizing Spirit of Man lives by variety, and the new Faces of Things.

26. Though a contented Mind enlargeth the dimension of little things, and unto some ’tis Wealth enough not to be Poor, and others are well content, if they be but Rich enough to be Honest, and to give every Man his due: yet fall not into that obsolete Affectation of Bravery to throw away thy Money, and to reject all Honours or Honourable stations in this courtly and splendid World. Old Generosity is superannuated, and such contempt of the World out of date. No Man is now like to refuse the favour of great ones, or be content to say unto Princes, stand out of my Sun.
⁵⁵
And if any there be of such antiquated Resolutions, they are not like to be tempted out of them by great ones; and ’tis fair if they escape the name of Hypocon-driacks from the Genius of latter times, unto whom contempt
of the World is the most contemptible opinion, and to be able, like
Bias
, to carry all they have about them were to be the eighth Wise-man. However, the old tetrick
⁵⁶
Philosophers look’d always with Indignation upon such a Face of Things, and observing the unnatural current of Riches, Power, and Honour in the World, and withall the imperfection and demerit of persons often advanced unto them, were tempted unto angry Opinions, that Affairs were ordered more by Stars than Reason, and that things went on rather by Lottery, than Election.

27. If thy Vessel be but small in the Ocean of this World, if Meanness of Possessions be thy allotment upon Earth, forget not those Virtues which the great disposer of all bids thee to entertain from thy Quality and Condition, that is, Submission, Humility, Content of mind, and Industry. Content may dwell in all Stations. To be low, but above contempt, may be high enough to be Happy. But many of low Degree may be higher than computed, and some Cubits above the common Commensuration;
⁵⁷
for in all States Virtue gives Qualifications, and Allowances, which make out defects. Rough Diamonds are sometimes mistaken for Pebbles, and Meanness may be Rich in Accomplishments, which Riches in vain desire. If our merits be above our Stations, if our intrinsecal Value be greater than what we go for, or our Value than our Valuation, and if we stand higher in God’s, than in the Censor’s Book;
⁵⁸
it may make some equitable balance in the inequalities of this World, and there may be no such vast Chasm or Gulph between disparities as common Measures determine. The Divine Eye looks upon high and low differently from that of Man.
⁵⁹
They who seem to stand upon
Olympus
, and high mounted unto our eyes, may be but in the Valleys, and low Ground unto his; for he looks upon those as highest who nearest approach his Divinity, and upon those as lowest, who are farthest from it.

28. When thou lookest upon the Imperfections of others,

allow one Eye for what is Laudable in them, and the balance they have from some excellency, which may render them considerable. While we look with fear or hatred upon the Teeth of the Viper, we may behold his Eye with love.
⁶⁰
In venemous Natures something may be amiable: Poysons afford Anti-poysons:
⁶¹
nothing is totally, or altogether uselesly bad. Notable Virtues are sometimes dashed with notorious Vices, and in some vicious tempers have been found illustrious Acts of Virtue; which makes such observable worth in some actions of King
Demetrius, Antonius
, and
Ahab
, as are not to be found in the same kind in
Aristides, Numa
, or
David
. Constancy, Generosity, Clemency, and Liberality have been highly conspicuous in some Persons not markt out in other concerns for Example or Imitation. But since Goodness is exemplary in all, if others have not our Virtues, let us not be wanting in theirs, nor scorning them for their Vices whereof we are free, be condemned by their Virtues, wherein we are deficient. There is Dross, Alloy, and Embasement in all human Temper; and he flieth without Wings, who thinks to find Ophyr
⁶²
or pure Metal in any. For perfection is not like Light center’d in any one Body, but like the dispersed Seminalities
⁶³
of Vegetables at the Creation scattered through the whole Mass of the Earth, no place producing all and almost all some. So that ’tis well, if a perfect Man can be made out of many Men, and to the perfect Eye of God even out of Mankind. Time, which perfects some Things, imperfects also others. Could we intimately apprehend the Ideated Man,
⁶⁴
and as he stood in the intellect of God upon

the first exertion by Creation, we might more narrowly comprehend our present Degeneration, and how widely we are fallen from the pure Exemplar and Idea of our Nature: for after this corruptive Elongation from a primitive and pure Creation, we are almost lost in Degeneration; and
Adam
hath not only fallen from his Creator, but we our selves from
Adam
, our Tycho and primary Generator.

29. Quarrel not rashly with Adversities not yet understood; and overlook not the Mercies often bound up in them. For we consider not sufficiently the good of Evils, nor fairly compute the Mercies of Providence in things afflictive at first hand. The famous
Andreas Doria
being invited to a Feast by
Aloysio Fieschi
with design to Kill him, just the night before fell mercifully into a fit of the Gout and so escaped that mischief. When
Cato
intended to Kill himself, from a blow which he gave his servant, who would not reach his Sword unto him, his Hand so swell’d that he had much ado to Effect his design. Hereby any one but a resolved Stoick might have taken a fair hint of consideration, and that some mercifull Genius
⁶⁵
would have contrived his preservation. To be sagacious in such intercurrences
⁶⁶
is not Superstition, but wary and pious Discretion, and to contemn such hints were to be deaf unto the speaking hand of God, wherein
Socrates
and
Cardan
would hardly have been mistaken.
⁶⁷