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• the farther you enter in. I would rather advise that a Man should give his Servant a Box of the Ear a little unseasonably, than torture his Mind by putting on such a fedate Countenance; and had rather discover my Passions than brood over them at my own Expence; they grow less by being vented and expressed; and it is much better their Point should operate outwardly than be turned towards ourselves. • Omnia Vitia in aperto leviora funt : & tunc perniciofiffima, quum fimulatâ Sanitate fubfidunt. • All • Vices are less dangerous when open to be seen, and then • most pernicious when they lurk under a dissembled Temper.

Rules to be ob

ferved in the
Discovery of
Anger against
Domestics.

I admonish all who have Authority to be angry in my Family, in the first Place, to be sparing of their Anger, and not to lavish it upon every Occafion; for that both lessens the Weight and hinders the Effect of it. Loud Exclamation is so customary that every one despises it; and, that your Clamour at a Servant for a Theft is not minded, because it is no more than what he has seen you make a hundred Times, against him, for having ill washed a Glass, or misplaced a Stool. Secondly, that they do not spend their Breath in vain, but make sure that their Reproof reach the Person in Fault; for ordinarily they are apt to bawl before he comes into their Prefence, and continue scolding an Age after he is gone;

Et fecum petulans amentia certat,
i. e.

And peevish Madness with itself contends.

They quarrel with their own Shadows, and push the Storm in a Place where no one is either chastised or interested, but in the Clamour of their Voice, which is unavoidable. I likewife, in Quarrels, condemn those who huff and vapour without an Adversary; such Rodomontades are to be reserved to discharge upon the offending Party.

S

Mugitus veluti cum prima in prælia taurus

Terrificos ciet, atque irafci in cornua tentat,

9 Senec. Epift. 56.

Arboris

Claudian. in Eutrop. lib. i. v. 237

• Æneid. lib. xii, v. 103, .

Arboris obnixus trunco, ventosque laceffit
Letibus, & sparsa ad pugnam proludit arena.

i. e.

Like angry Bulls that make the Valleys ring,
Press'd to the Fight, with dreadful bellowing;
Which whet their Horns against the sturdy Oak,
And, kicking back their Heels, the Winds provoke;
And, tossing up the Earth, a Dust do raise
As furious Preludes to ensuing Frays.

When I am angry, my Anger is very sharp, but withal very short, and as private as possible; I am

The Author's

Anger on great indeed hasty and violent, but never am beand little Occa- fide myself, so that I throw out all Manner fions. of injurious Words at random, and without Choice, and never confider properly to dart my Raillery where I think it will give the deepest Wound; for I commonly make use of no other Weapon in my Anger than my Tongue. My Servants have a better Bargain of me in great Occasions than in little ones; the latter surprise me; and the Mischief of it is, that, when you are once upon the Precipice, it is no Matter who gives you the Push, for you are sure to go to the Bottom; the Fall urges, moves, and makes haste of itself. In great Occasions this fatisfies me, that they are so just every-one expects a warrantable Indignation in me, and then I am proud of deceiving their Expectation; against these I gird and prepare myself; they disturb my Head, and threaten to crack my Brain, should I give Way to them. I can easily contain myself from entering into one of these Passions, and am strong enough, when I expect them, to repel their Violence, be the Cause never so great; but, if a Paffion once prepoffefs and feize me, it carries me away, be the Cause ever so small; which makes me thus indent with those who may contend with me, viz. When they see me first moved, let me alone, right or wrong, I will do the fame for them. The Storm is only begot by the Concurrence of Resentments, which easily spring from one another, and are not born together. Let every-one have his own Way, and we shall be always at Peace: A profitable Advice,

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Advice, but hard to practise. Sometimes also it falls out, that I put on a feeming Anger, for the better Governing of my Family, without any real Emotion. As Age renders my Humours more sharp, I study to oppose them; and will, if I can, order it fo, that for the Future I may be so much the less peevish and hard to please, the more Excuse and Inclination I have to be so, although I have heretofore been reckoned amongst those that have the greatest Patience.

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A Word, to conclude this Chapter: Aristotle says 'That

Whether
Wrath is pro-
per to animate
Virtue and

Anger sometimes serves to arm Virtue and < Valour.' 'Tis likely it may be fo, nevertheless, they who contradict him pleasantly anfwer, That 'tis a Weapon of novel Ufe; ' for we move other Arms, this moves us; our Hands guide it not, 'tis it that guides our Hands;

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' it holds us, we hold not it.'

Valour.

T

CHAP. ΧΧΧΙΙ.

Defence of SENECA and PLUTARCH.

HE Familiarity I have had with these two Authors, and the Assistance they have lent to my Age and to my Book, which is wholly compiled of what I have borrowed from them, obliges me to stand up for their Ho

nour.

As to Seneca, amongst a Million of Pamphlets that those of the pretended Reformed Religion disperse Comparison beabroad for the Defence of their Cause (and twixt Seneca which sometimes proceed from a Pen fo good, and the Cardithat 'tis pity 'tis not employed in a better nal of Lorrain. Subject) I formerly saw one, which, in Order to draw a complete Parallel betwixt the Government of our late poor King Charles the Ninth and that of Nero, compares the late Cardinal of Lorrain with Seneca, in their Fortunes (as they were both of them Prime Ministers to their Princes); in their Manners, Conditions, and Deportments,

at

as having been very near alike. Herein, I think, he does the faid Lord Cardinal a great Honour; for, though I am one of those who have a great Esteem for his Wit, Eloquence, and Zeal for Religion, and for the Service of his King, and reckon it was his Happiness to be born in an Age wherein it was a Thing so new, fo rare, and also fo necessary for the public Weal, to have an Ecclesiastical Person, of so high Birth and Dignity, and so sufficient and capable for his Place; yet, to confefs the Truth, I do not think his Capacity by many Degrees equal to Seneca's, nor his Virtue either so pure, intire, or steady.

The malicious

and unfair Charater which Dion gives of Se-.. neca, quite contrary to what is reported of him by Tacitus.

Now this Book whereof I am speaking, to bring about its Design, gives a very injurious Description of Seneca, by Reproaches borrowed from Dion the Historian whose Testimony I do not at all believe; for, setting aside the Inconsistency of this Writer, who, after having called Seneca in one Place very wife, and in another a mortal Enemy to Nero's Vices, makes him elfewhere avaricious, an Usurer, ambitious, effeminate, voluptuous, and a false Pretender to Philosophy. Seneca's Virtue appears so lively and vigorous in his Writings, and his Vindication is so clear against any of these Imputations, and particularly as to his Riches and extraordinary Expences, that I cannot believe any Testimony to the Contrary. And, befides, it is much more reasonable to believe the Roman Historians in such Things than the Greeks and Foreigners. Now Tacitus and the others fpeak very honourably both of his Life and Death, and represent him to us a very excellent and virtuous Perfonage in all Things; and I will alledge no other Reproach against Dion's Report but this, which I cannot avoid, namely, that he has so crazy a Judgment in the Roman Affairs, that he dares to maintain Julius Cafar's Cause against Pompey, and that of Anthony againft Cicero.

Let us now come to Plutarch: John Bodinus is a good
Author of our Time, and of much greater
Judgment than his cotemporary Class of
Scribblers, fo that he deferves to be carefully

Bodinus, a good Author, vilifies Plu

read and confidered. I find him, though a tarch, whom little bold in that Passage of his Method of Montaigne History, where he accuses Plutarch not only vindicates. of Ignorance (wherein I would have let him alone, this not being a Subject for me to speak to) but 'That he oft • writes Things incredible and absolutely fabulous,' which are his own Words: If he had fimply said, 'That he * writes Things otherwise than they really are,' it had been no great Reproach; for what we have not seen we receive from other Hands, and take upon Trust; and I see he purposely, sometimes, variously relates the fame Story; as the Judgment of the three best Captains that ever were, formed by Hannibal, which is given otherwise in the Life of Flaminius, and another Way in that of Pyrrhus: But to charge him with having believed Things incredible and impossible, is to accuse the most judicious Author in the World of Want of Difcernment. And this is his Example: As, says he, when he relates that a Lacede monian Boy fuffered his Bowels to be torn The Bowels of out by a Fox-cub, which he had stolen, and kept it concealed under his Coat till he fell ' down dead, rather than he would discover ' his Theft.' In the first Place, I find this Example ill chosen, forasmuch as it is very and incredible hard to limit the Efforts of the Faculties of Story? the Soul, whereas we have better Authority to limit and know the Strength of the Body; and therefore, if I had been as he, I should rather have chosen an Example of this second Sort; and there are some that are incredible : Amongst others, that which he relates of Pyrrhus, "That, 'all over wounded as he was, he struck one of his Ene' mies, who was armed from Head to Foot, so great a • Blow with his Sword, that he clave him down from his • Crown to his Seat, whereby the Body was divided into

6

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a Lacedæmo

nian Boy torn out by a Foxcub. Whether

it be an abfurd

two Parts.' In this Example I find no great Miracle; nor do I admit of the Excuse he makes for Plutarch, by his having added the Words ' as 'tis said', by Way of Caution to fufpend our Belief; for, unless it be in Things receiv

In the Life of Lycurgus, c. 14, of Amyand's Translation.
In the Life of Pyrrhus, C. 12.

ed

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