THE GREAT PREROGATIVE OF A Private Life: By way of DIALOGUE.  
Written by the learned HORATIUS TUBERO, OR The Sieur Moth. le. Vayer.  
Omnis enim per se Diuûm natura, necesse est  
Immortali aevo summâ cum pace fruatur;  
— Curâ semota, metuque,  
Ipsa suis pollens opibus.  
LONDON: Printed by J. C. for L. C. and sold by Charles Blount, at the black Raven near Worcester-house in the Strand. 1678.   

TO The Honourable Sir James Langham, KNIGHT and BARONET.  
SIR,  
EVER since I had the honour to make one in the number of your Vast Acquaintance, I have had an extreme ambition to publish to the world my happiness of it, in paying you my grateful acknowledgements for so high a favour: and indeed I should have done it sooner, had 〈◊〉 found any thing that deserved so great a name a yours to be prefixed to it; 〈◊〉 name that is equally revered and loved by all degrees of men who know it even by the lowest, who generally are prone to deface the Scutcheon, and sully th● fame of such as are abov● them.  
I KNOW not wha● Judgement you will pass upon me for the unbecoming liberty I take to desire you● Patronage and Protection for this small Treatise; but I am sure, the deceased Author (were he capable of returning) would think it an unpardonable Injury done to his Memory, if I ●ad not made choice of a person of your great Learning and Abilities to be the Defender of it.  
BE pleased then, SIR, ●o give it a kind reception, ●nce I present you with a Subject which is so much your Darling, and so conforming to your own particular temper, Praeferens (a● the learned Doctor says of you) honestan● quietem, 
L. D. M. in Jugulo causae, Ep. 19 f. 76.  studia que literarum i● seducto, vitae actuosae sed habitae inter celsissimas regni dignitates & munera, quò te tua virtu● proveheret. A Subject which you sufficiently knew the advantages of, and therefore made your timely retreat from the thronging varieties of troublesome business, that you might th● more freely enjoy the sublimer felicities of undisturbed and pleasant solitude. In societate & frequentia animum undique arietari ad varia negotia: & dum partem nostri temporis, quod solidum Deo debetur, amicus, sodalis, procurator, uxor, liberi sibi quisque rapit, tempus vitae nostrae quasi in frusta concidi, & Deo subtrahi.  
AND certainly (as the most Ingenious Mr. 
In his Essay of Solitude, fol. 91.  Abraham Cowley remarks) the meaning of that Sentence, Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus, spoken by the excellent Scipio, was, That he found more satisfaction to his mind, and more improvement of it by solitude, than by company; or else he would never, after he had made Rome Mistress of almost the whole world, have retired himself from it by a voluntary exile, and at a private house in the middle of a Wood near Linternum, passed the remainder of his glorious life no less gloriously.  
ARISTOTLE positively concludes, that the love of a solitary and private life, in a man of Letters and Cogitation, proceeds from an heroical virtue, which raises him above the level of ordinary mankind, to place him in some kind of equality with the Gods themselves; whilst the others, that are run down with the torrent of public affairs, (whatever their conditions and eminencies may be) are but as golden Slaves and Vassals to them: they are constantly employed in the vexatious drudgeries of Humane state, when those are in a continual serenity and peacefulness of mind, under the more refined and exalted Contemplations.  
VIRGIL very well understood what he did, when he desired but to have two Wishes granted him, that so he might be completely happy as to this world; and the first was, to be a good Philosopher; the second, a good Husbandman: the one obliging him to retire from the City; the other, to become a Recluse to the world; to have the large Campagne of Heaven for his mind to walk in, and all the works of Nature to consider on, without being justled on the one hand by the buzzing disturbances of the ambitious flattering Court, or on the other, by the noisy hum of the giddy Multitude: Philosophi debent aversari aulas Regum, 
Marsil. ficinus  quia ibi nec veritas, nec tranquillitas, sed simulatio, says my Author of the former; and which methinks Juvenal does very elegantly express to us in his Quid Romae faciam? 
Sat. 3.  mentiri nescio: For the wise man's tongue is always, and cannot but be, the Interpreter of his heart. And as for the latter, Seneca says, Inimica est multorum conversatio, nemo aliquod nobis vitium non commendat, aut imprimit. 
Epist. 70.  We shall not be able to communicate with them in any civil complaisance, but we must commend their Vices, and so bring wounds and blemishes on our own Innocence: but when we are under the glorious liberty of a shady solitude, we are in an incapacity then of feeling the strong appulses of defiling vice, meeting there with no temptations from gaudy Honour to dazzle our eyes, and steal our best part from us.  
SIR, this is a Subject so agreeable to dilate upon, that I should not be weary, if I were voluminous in it; but I must not, to please myself, forget that deference I own to you; nor must I be unmindful that I am now on the Author's behalf an humble suppliant for your kindness and favour, and therefore it does not become me to be tedious: I shall only say this, That the world is so sensible of your great Learning and Judgement, that it will not dare to disprove of any thing which you shall seem to give countenance to, and like.  
AND as your value and esteem of it will much advance its Credit and Reputation in our Language, (which in some respect I cannot greatly doubt you will deny me, it having had the general approbation of the Learned who have read it, for the most insinuating piece of its kind) so your easy readiness to forgive the presumption of this bold Address, will be a forcible obligation upon me to be all my life,  
Sir, Your most humble, and most obedient Servant.   

The PREROGATIVE OF A Private Life: By way of Dialogue BETWEEN Philoponus and Hesychius.  Philoponus. 
IS it possible, Hesychius, that neither point of Honour, nor the consideration of Profit, nor the respect of Pleasure, which are things that are so advantageous in the Charges and divers Employments of a Civil life, are capable to divert you from this sluggish idleness, and make you quit a course of life so retired and private, that I question whether you ought to be put in the number of the Living; your house serving already as a Sepulture, before which I never pass, but I have a strong impulse in me to set upon it this Inscription:  Here lies the poor Hesychius. 
Much what the same that Seneca said always as he went to Cumes, Vates hic situs est 
* Sen. Epist. 55. , before the house of a man who lived much after the dull rate as you do. This is merely to be drunk with a Liquor which ought not to be taken, but with the greatest sobriety. Philosophy is a sweet and pleasant Honey, but it ought only to be tasted with the tip of the finger; otherwise it will make your head disordered, and give you very dangerous Vertigoes. Cato had great reason, when he said to his Son, speaking of the Philosophers of his time, under the name of the Greeks, who were then the Professors of it, Satis est ingenia Graecorum inspicere, 
Plin. l. 24. c. 1.  non perdiscere: Prophesying to him great disgraces, if they would penetrate and search too far into them; Quandocunque ista Gens, suas literas dabit omnia corrumpet, hoc puta vatem dixisse. 'Twas upon this consideration, that the Romans burned the Books of Numa, and afterwards several times drove the Philosophers out of their Cities, after the example of the most sage Republics of Greece, who have so often persecuted them. This Attractive Philosophy, which they taught the world, may well be compared to the fabulous Scylla that our Poets describe to us.  
Prima hominis facies, & pulchro pectore virgo  
Pube tenus, postrema, immani pectore pistrix,  
Delphinum caudas. utero commissa luporum.  Vir. 1. Aeneid 
There is nothing more charming at first sight; they are only the Discourses of Humane. Felicity; and all those Treatises are as so many ways that conduct you to it: but if once you come too close, and would be searching into the most secret Mysteries, you will find yourself strait in a gulf and precipice, in the midst of its absurd Questions and its extravagant Maxims; which, like wild beasts, will afflict your mind, and persecute it on every side. Therefore it is not without reason that Philostratus represents to us the Soul of Palamedes, 
De vita Apoll. l. 3. c. 6.  an abstracted Philosopher, as you may be; which being transmitted into another body, is so enraged against, and wishes so great an evil to Philosophy, as to that which had never been of any service to him, and which with all his Learning that he had also increased, had not the power to keep him from falling under the good conduct of Ulysses, his Enemy, a Patron of humane prudence in the active life: as for my part, I have always esteemed, and taken for a Rule in my Studies, the Saying of Neoptolemus, Philosophandum est paucis, 
Emen, apud Agell. l. 5. c. 15.  nam omnino haud placet. It is good to study Philosophy, provided it be at certain hours: We are permitted to think highly of things, so that it be without extravagance. Contemplation is not forbidden us, if it does but give place, and leave us any time for good actions: for there is nothing so excellent in the world, but its extremities are vicious; Intemperance being had in Learning itself, and in Philosophy: You do not perceive that instead of making any profitable service of its Maxims, you cause yourselves servilely to be its slaves; instead of governing it according to your occasions, it exercises a tyrannical Empire over you in its way; instead of possessing it as a thing of your own, it possesses and agitates you, as if some bad Daemon had you in his power.  Hesychius. 
There only wants a good Exorcism to deliver us from this unclean and evil Spirit. Goodness, Philoponus! how greatly I pity you upon one consideration, and how hearty you make me laugh upon another: I have an extreme compassion for you, to see you thus utter your injurious Calumnies against so venerable and sacred a thing, which are, I believe, as so many Ejections of your venom against Heaven itself, and which will fall down again upon your own face. But I am not any whit less pleased with the consideration of that gentile judgement you make of me, in esteeming me a Philosopher, and seeing in what a Predicament you range all those, who truly may deserve that title, at present too much filled with envy and calumny, by me to be avowed, if I shall ingenuously confess to you, that it is from them I have learned to give myself that satisfaction of you, and those that resemble you, at whose contempt they chief glory, and derive from it an extraordinary advantage, apprehending nothing so much as your Approbation, and never are more mistrustful of their failings, than when it happens that they have pleased you. What crime can I have committed, did then Antisthenes ask, that those men do so much esteem and applaud me?  Si vis beatus esse, cogita hoc primùm, contemnere & contemni; nondum es faelix, si te turba non deriserit. 
This is the Sentence that Epictetus does so often repeat.  Philop. 
I never did expect from you this Reparty, which cannot well be given but only to the Populace, and not to men of our condition: but in every Case and Circumstance, remember that there are not any worse maladies in the world, either as to the body, or to the mind, than those that seize upon, and yet do not make us sensible of the distemper.  Hesych. 
Then, Philoponus, you believe that your Office has greatly distinguished you from the common rank of men, and you are still ignorant of the little difference that those of whom you speak do put between your Purple and the coursest Stuff that covers the meanest Mechanic.  
Vulgus tàm chlamydatos, quàm coronam voco.  Senec. de vit. beat. cap. 2. 
Know, that neither the highest Dignities of a State, nor the first Charges and Offices of a Court, nor the most important and eminent places of a Palace, do keep and hinder a man, as they consider him, from being of the number of the people: Togis isti non judiciis distant, say they, those are all weakly vulgar spirits, which they place also in the same category. But not to put you into an ill humour, since that otherwise our ancient Acquaintance will not permit us to treat one another with so much rigour and severity, I would gladly examine with you the Course of my life, and consider seriously, now we are together, if my manner of procedure and actings will be found as criminal and  as you have strenuously reproached me for them, after you have in a few words discoursed and said upon the subject of Philosophy, that all the Persecutions which it has ever suffered, and all that has most calumniously been imposed upon it, cannot proceed but either From Ignorance or Envy, except you will take for Philosophers, I know not what kind of half-learned Gentlemen, or I know not what contentious Pedants, who after they have spent their whole age upon Books, do find that they have only (as it were) run the gauntlet through all the Sciences, without ever having stayed to penetrate into the true and essential Philosophy; therein much-what like to your Ulysses, 
Diog Laerr. in Aristipp.  whom so mightily just now you insisted on, who went down into the infernal shades, took notice of all those persons of that Country, excepting the Queen Proserpina, who was the most notorious and remarkable Object that he could see there. But now let us consider whether those three powerful Demons of Humane life, Honesty, Utility, and that which is delectable, do so abandon me, or are so extremely contrary to me, as you have most violently presupposed to me at the beginning of your Discourse: & what will you say if I discover to you, that I receive from them more favour and kindness in one day, than those have had in all their lives, whom you believe are the most advanced and blessed in their good graces?  Philop. 
As for the first point, who is he that has this honesty or honour?  
Est enim honestas honoris status, (says Isidore) unde idem honestum, quod honore dignum.  10 Ethym. cap. 9 
You will confess with me, that this is the greatest of exterior good things, even in the judgement of Aristotle, 
Eth●ad Nic. l. 1. c. 5. & l. 4. c. 3.  as he who is most solicitously courted and sought by those in whom the other good things are found, and of whom even the very Gods themselves seem to be ambitious. Now if this honour be nothing else but an eminent and splendid Respect, and a glorious testimony of Esteem and Reverence which we bear to persons of a great and shining Virtue, and of Illustrious Merit, how then can you possibly pretend that the least Ray of this Glory can shine upon you, who make a Profession of living in the deepest obscurity of your house? and how is it likely that you should receive the recompense of good and virtuous actions.  
(Chi semina virtù, fama raccoglie) you who renounce all the Functions and Offices of the civil life, to enjoy a lazy and sluggish repose, or to say better, a shameful idleness? for all Esteem and Reputation proceeds from some knowledge; and this knowledge cannot come but from our own carriages and actions, when they are evident and conspicuous, and that by the Work the Workman is known; and so long as Cada uno es hijo de sus obras, and as the School says,  se habet unumquodque ad esse, ita & ad operandum. how then, annihilating the cause, can the effect follow? and by what means, living alone by yourself, and from the commerce of all Mankind, will you obtain from them the recompense of an unknown Virtue, and of a Merit which does not appear?  Hesych. 
I do easily perceive the Error that makes you to argue after this manner; and it is, that you seeing us to be out of Employment, out of the troublesome hurry and agitation of Business, leading a most Retired life, and as much out of the noise as possible, you strait conclude we are without action, and by consequence without Virtue, and without Honour, since that Virtue consists in Action; and Honour ought to be the price and recompense of Virtue only: but I would have you know, there are not greater and more important actions, than those of a Soul truly Philosophical, when it is deepest in Contemplation. 
Depone hoc apud te, nunquàm plus agere sapientem, quàm cum in conspectu ejus divina atque humana venerunt.  Sen. Epist. 69. says the Roman Philosopher: for as it is visible in Mechanical Arts, that there are none more active than those which have the Conduct and Command, although they appear often without motion; the same may be said of Philosophers, as Aristotle reports,  Quorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, contemplationes, & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ratiocinationes, actiones, & quidem longè caeteris perfectiores, vocat. 
Otherwise, says he, 
7 Polit. cap. 3.  we should be forced to think very ill of Nature, and of the World, who do not produce any actions out of themselves:  Parum pulchre esset Naturae, & toti Mundo, quibus non sunt externae actiones, neque ullae aliae praeterquam eorum propriae. 
Which reason made that Ancient speak so gentily and so well, Satius est otiosum esse quam nihil agere. 
Attil. apud Plin. lib. 1. Epist. 9  And truly, if we are not called Men but from that superior part which is within us, and our Mind being our Form, is that which gives us our Being, we may very well say, that those Functions and Operations are our principal and most important Actions; and therefore they ought to be followed with the most solid glory, and with the honour of the best allay that is possible to be found here below.  Philop. 
But since we are a Composition made up of two parts, and it is the union of the Soul and Body which makes us Men, wherefore should we deny one of these two Moieties its Functions? for by your own Maxims, Vnumquodque est propter suam operationem; therefore when your Philosophy becomes so airy and spiritual, that it only actuates this principal and superior part, you do not perceive that instead of making yourself a Man, you raise yourself to a Phantôm; and that to give it a more perfect being, you take from it the Real, or at least the Reasonable for the Chimerical. But moreover, the most notable and eminent among you, as the greatest part of the Stoics, are not so much against the Occupations of the life Politic. For those say, that there are three kinds or ways of living, whereof they call the one Speculative, the other Active, and the third a Compound of the two other reasonable, which was that which ought to be chosen and preferred by men of good discourse, since that Nature hath seemed to have formed us expressly capable of those two Exercises, and that for this reason we were called Reasonable Animals; As Diogenes Laertius hath very well observed in divers places of the life of Zenon. Epictetus, 
Arrian. lib. 4. cap. 4.  one of the Principal of that Sect, equally laughs at those who make it all their business and concern to seek out Charges and Employments, as he does at the others, who have them in the greatest aversion, and who fly them so as you do; comparing the former to dropsical persons, who are never satisfied with drinking; and the latter to those who are mad, and cannot so much as perceive they are so: and also that they being things which are equally independent on us, it is not reasonable to fasten our affections on them.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Extra te autem est non modo magistratus, sed etiam privatae vitae status; non modo negotium, verum etiam otium. 
What great esteem ought we then to have of this sweet Repose, which not only Caesar can take away from us when he pleases, but the least troublesome croaking of a Raven, the noise of a Drum, a Fever, and a thousand other Accidents of life? It is very difficult, says he, to have a Disposition accommodated to them all, and to be able to say at any time with a good heart, that Verse which Cleantes hath made famous:  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quocumque voles Jupiter me ducito, túque necessitas. 
And what say you of Pythagoras, who was so named, Quod veritatem perinde, atque Pythius loqueretur? do we not see by the Letter that he writ to Anaximenes, how much he invited him to leave off a while the contemplation of the Stars, and the rest of Philosophy, to be at leisure for the public affairs of his Country?  Nam neque ego semper meis vaco fabulis, verùm & de aliis interdum quibus inter se Itali dissident. 
Socrates, whom you so mightily esteem, practised the same, and thought that there were none but the most melancholic sort of persons, as those Admirers or Heraclitus, a Myson, an Apemantus, a Timon, and other such Misanthropes, who have agreed with you in your opinion.  Hesych. 
I will instantly tell you, that loving Truth above all things, as the most pleasurable food of our Souls; with affection I seek it, wheresoever it is likely to be found; which hinders me from being particularly engaged to any one Heresy, or Sect of Philosophy,  Nulli addictus juravi in verba magistri; 
But if I were forced to give my Vote and Suffrage in favour of some one, I should more peculiarly esteem that, to which Potamon of Alexandria gave the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Elective, because it makes choice of whatsoever pleaseth him in all the others, whereof it composes its Systeme apart, as a most pleasant and agreeable Honey drawn out of many different flowers. But to answer the authority of all those greatly eminent persons, which you place on your side, (and of whom, I must confess, one cannot speak with too much veneration, since they seem only to have been sent down from Heaven, for the institution of humane kind) we ought to believe that they have with much reason exhorted the men of their times to virtuous actions, which are practicable in humane Society; and that not being contented only with their words and precepts, they were also willing to give them the Examples of their own carriages and behaviour. Also I have never pretended that the active life of man, by the exercise of many virtues, had not a great deal of Merit and Recommendation: but because Virtues are different, there being some of them far more eminent than others, the natural and acquired, the moral and intellectual, methinks that since the more heroic and divine accompany the contemplative life, and than that kind of life, as I have already discovered to you, produces the most worthy and most important actions; I ought to be pardoned, if in the constraint you have given me, I prefer it not only to the active life of the Populace, but also to that which you were pleased to name reasonable, and which is mixed with action and contemplation. And thus in my opinion is Empedocles to be understood, when he despised the Government of the estate which was presented to him, that so his Philosophical Speculations might not be interrupted.  
Anaxagoras had the same sentiment, when he abandoned a most ample patrimony, not to be obliged to be troubled about its conservation. The same conception made Democritus to retire within the tombs, and drove Pyrrhus into deserts. And as for Heraclitus, who resigned his Sceptre into the hands of his Brother, you have been pleased to make him already pass for a man of Bedlam; and peradventure you put into the same Predicament all those whom I might allege to you, except you have some higher value and respect for the Prince of Lyceum, who also in my opinion has not yet been taken for an Hypocondriaque: and if his Reasons may seem of any weight with you, and his Authority of any reverence, pray let me persuade you to see that excellent Exhortation he hath made to a life purely contemplative, in the latter end of his Ethics. Anichomacus saying, cap. 7. That it hath the same advantages over the other kinds of life, as things simple have over compound, divine over frail and mortal; laughing at all others, who, like you, will needs have a mixture, and a blending of Action and Meditation: We must, says he, abandon the body, and whatsoever is corruptible, as much as possibly we can, to live principally by the spirit; thus it is that we do, as it were, come near to the Divinity, and thus may we make ourselves immortal.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Neque verò oportet nos humana sapere, ac sentire, ut quidam monent, cùm simus homines, neque mortalia cùm mortales, sed nos ipsos quod fieri potest à mortalitate vindicare, atque omnia facere, ut ei nostrae parti, quae in nobis est optima, convenienter vivamus. 
The Latin Philosopher, 
Senec. Epist. 73.  though otherwise a Stoic, did not fail to give us the same precepts.  Non cùm vocaveris Philosophandum est omnia alia negligenda, ut huic assideamus, cui nullum tempus satis magnum est, etiam si à pueritia usque ad longissimos humani aevi terminos vita protenditur, non multùm resert, utrùm omittas philosophiam, an intermittas. 
And in another Letter, where he invites his friend not to think of any thing but the cultivating of his mind, if he desires to get any fruit from it.  
Omnia impedimenta dimitte, & vaea bonae menti, nunquam ad illam pervenit occupatus, exercet philosophia regnum suum, dat tempus, non accipit, non est res subcisciva, ordinaria est, domina est, adest & jubet.  Senec. Epist. 64. 
In truth, as for the common sort of men, who do not go by the name of Learned and Well-read, taking up only some trivial Discourses of Philosophy to pass away the time withal, and to serve them as a divertisement in those Occupations which keep them subject the rest of the time; it is not any wonder if it does not exercise over them that powerful Empire: but as for those, who ply it seriously, and who have once earnestly engaged their affections to it, it can't be thought that they are capable of dividing them, and of giving themselves to other matters.  
Non possunt simul Thersitem, & Agamemnonem agere; for as the Gentile Lucius hath well observed, great Spirits, and elevated Souls, who have had a better share of the theft of Prometheus than others, are much more easily smitten, and more violently transported than the Populace, with the love of Sciences, and of Philosophy; just as the Indians, by reason of their natural heat, were by the power of Wine struck quite with another kind of fury than that of other men. It is true, in Philosophy, as he adds very notably, that Drunkenness and Fury ought to be named Sobriety and Temperance: for of that divine Nectar communicated unto men by Tantalus, as Philostratus interprets it, men can never be said to drink to excess. Do not then any more affirm that a life purely contemplative is reprehensible of excess; & do not any farther dispute the preference of that glory and honour which so many signalised persons have so justly attributed to it: for if it be by that, that the true Philosophers are called 
Pares, & Socii Deorum, non supplices.  Senec. Epist. 31. since we do really believe that the Gods justly deserve Worship and Veneration, we cannot deny Honour and Respect to those who come so near to them; and if it be true, Philoponus, that Utility is to be found wheresoever Honesty is to be met with, Quip bonum ex honesto fluit, you will run a great hazard not to get any more advantage from the second point of our Conference, than you have had in the first.  Philop. 
And who do you think will any further contest with you after so rare an Apotheosis? for if only the Gods may come in compare, and be equal with you, it is impiety for men to contradict you, and folly to resist you: Yet never theless, because Jupiter himself has not always disdained the Commerce and Conversation of Mankind, and since moreover, as Phaedrus says,  
Nisi utile est quod facimus, stulta est gloria.  Lib. 3 Fab. 56. 
I would most willingly learn of you where are those great Blessings which come in to you from your continual Speculations, and to what use you employ them: for to my thinking, I never yet have seen any one among you, who was not very much in want and necessity, provided that the actions and labours of their Predecessors have not secured them from it beforehand. Now that so we may understand one another, because you make three kinds of good, or utility; Bonum enim est utilitas, aut non aliud ab utilitate, say the Stoics: Know, that I do not here mean to speak of the goods of the body or the mind, of which that is not the question now; but I intent by goods, those which are named the goods of fortune, which give us, and furnish us with the necessities of this life, Lo que se usano se escusa, and without which it cannot be but very miserable.  
Turpis enim fama, & contemptus, & acris egestas,  
Semota ab dulci vita stabilique videntur,  
Et quasi jam Lethi portas cunct arier ante.  Lucret. lib. 3. 
Which has given occasion to the Proverb,  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Divitiae vir, 
A rich man, because without Wealth a man is not of any consideration in the civil life; the time not being any more so, as it was in that when they made an esteem of men though naked, as was Ulysses, who, as the honest Homer relates of him, did not want being respected and honoured by the Pheacians, even in that very condition; but now  
— Dat census honores.  
Census amicitias, pauper ubique jacet.  Lucian in Catap. 
Insomuch as the poor Gobler Mycillus is contemptuously left shivering all alone by himself upon the Bank by Charon, as if Poverty carried its Infamy along with it even to the other world; whereas on the contrary, the golden Bow is , and full of veneration. Which makes me to remember the Opinion of the Chinese, who hold men's poverty for an infallible Mark of their sins: The Bonzi, or the Divines of Japan, their neighbours, teaching also in public, that neither poor folks nor women can ever be saved. For which reason, Riches are very much called Means and Faculties, inasmuch as by their means alone all is done; and Effects, because therewith they effect and accomplish all manner of Erterprises. Our Ancients have also given to it the name of Chevisance, because without it they could never put a chief period to any thing they undertook: They also make it a part of the Sovereign good, 
Luc. dial. Diog. & Alex.  as Aristotle says, though Diogenes reproaches him there for it, in that he had not thus writ, but only to give himself an occasion and boldness to demand and to receive some of Alexander: But what good face soever the most austere among you put upon the matter,  
Divitias & opes facilius invenies qui vituperet, quam fastidiat.  Phil. de vit. Apoll. lib. 1. cap. 22. 
And it is in their consideration that the Court of Dionysius was so filled with Grecian Philosophers. Plato, among others, with all his Divinity, having even to the third time contemned the so dreadful dangers of the implacable Carybdis, to have his share in the liberalities of that King. It would be also an overgreat niceness in them, not to say weakness, not to dare to take it, for fear they should take it; not to dare to possess it, for fear they should possess it; not to dare to use it, for fear they should abuse it.  Infirmi animi est pati non posse divitias. 
The Sect of Apollonius Tyaneus was stifled in its very birth, for professing that pitiful and shameful poverty,  
Malesuada Fames, & turpis egestas  
Terribiles visu formae.  Virg. 6. Aeneid. 
Now you cannot deny but that it is only action which is capable to preserve you from it; that Estates and the good Commodities of life, are not got, at least are not preserved, but by labour.  Chi hà arte hà parte, chi non corre non hà il pallio. 
Aesop's Fisher not being able to catch any fish by his playing upon the Flute, was constrained to cast his Nets and his Tackling into the River. The Cyclops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Antonay du vuray Amour. c. 10. & Strabo Geog. l. 8.  manuventèr, represented upon the gate of the City of Argos, with his hands seeming to come out of his belly, learns us that we cannot preserve and uphold our Being, but by the work and labour of our hands. How then is it possible for you, in the midst of your so abstracted Contemplations, and your Olympic Entertainments, to find, I will not say, great affluence and riches, but only the common necessities of life? for as the Judiciaries have very well observed, Jupiter the distributer of Wealth, is opposite to Mercury, in as much as he that hath the one of them Ascendant upon the Earth at his Nativity, hath the other Descendant. Now Mercury is the Commander of that of learned men and Philosophers, but yet always with some regard to that lazy, dreaming Saturn, which makes you to be of that good humour, and which imprints in you such commendable Complexions. One ought not therefore to wonder, if men of Learning and profound Speculation are most ordinarily seen to be in want and necessity; and for my part, I cannot imagine what wealth you are able to discover to me, that does accompany your Hyperphysical Meditations, unless you would fain arrive at the Philosopher's stone, or unless the Demons do give you a share of their hidden treasures; for I remember that Socrates had one of them for his ordinary Companion.  Hesych. 
Why do you send us back to those Metallick Spirits? we who have all the Gods of Heaven for our most faithful and particular friends, who are able to give us all things, since that 
Deorum sunt omnia.  Diog. Laert. in vit. Diog. and there is no good thing but what comes from them; and if the Proverb be true, That all things are common among Friends, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, cannot you yet perceive, Philoponus, the immense greatness of our Riches, and how much we possess beyond all that you can imagine?  Philop. 
You have very good reason to call up, and awaken my imagination, since that your Riches as well as the Viands of the Banquet of witches, are all things fantastical, and which are not in the least perceptible to all the world; as it is said that the Philosophers have their imagination much stronger than the other common sort of men: but since when I pray, have they contracted this strict friendship with the Gods? which I believe cannot subsist but in Equality and Resemblance.  Hesych. 
Since the time that they gave themselves, more than any others, the trouble and pains to be conformable to them, and to love the Truth, to cherish Innocence, and to conserve pure and undefiled that part of the Soul, by which they hold an affinity with them. For I agree with you, that Friendship being Egality.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  6. Eth. ad Nis. cap. 5. 
Now it cannot be your purple Role which makes you to resemble them, for the Gods are all naked; nor your Magistracy, 
Neque Deus negotium habet, neque aliis exhibet.  Sen. Epist. 3. nor your great Reputation and good Renown; none knows God, and many speak evil of him, and yet are unpunished: Nor is it the manner whereby you are carried in a Litter, or drawn in a Coach; for God carries all things, being the Centre and foundation of the Universe: Nor that active life, of which you so much brag; for God, as the first mover, is necessarily immovable: Nor yet your good mien; God is invisible: nor your strength; that is perishing, and God is immortal: nor your sumptuous feasts; for the Gods eat not: nor your Tapistry-lodgings, and guilded Furniture; God inhabits not in any particular place, but fills all equally:  Jupiter est quodcumque vides, quodcumque moveris. 
Nor, to conclude, are the treasures and riches you so much boast of; for the Gods have no esteem and value for them.  Cogita Deos cum propitii essent futiles fuisse. 
But if I am form a Spirit that despises all these things, if I have a Soul assured and steadfast against all that makes the Populace to tremble, if my Felicity be independent of all things which are acquired by Fortune,  
Ingens intervallum inter me & caeteros factum est, omnes mortales multò antecedo, non multùm me Dii antecedunt.  Senec. Epist. 54. 
Now am I in affinity with the Gods, I possess their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and full affluence of all things; I desire nothing more, I have all the Riches of Heaven.  Sapiens tàm aequo animo omnia apud alios videt, contemnitque quàm Jupiter. 
O rare Resemblance! O rare Apotheosis! You will possibly tell me that the Gods, by the advantage and excellence of their nature, have no need of any thing; whereas ours, to maintain and uphold its being, requires the assistance of many external things, which are a part of the goods and means we speak of, or they cannot be possessed without them. And here now I would demand of you, Philoponus, since thereby you avow to me that the sole use of things necessary to life ought to recommend Riches to us, that if your great Occupations had permitted you to make any convenient Reflections upon this Subject, to make a good judgement of it, you would not have reproached in us a Purity that is preferable to all manner of the largest opulency.  
Magnae divitiae sunt, lege naturae composita paupertas. Lex autem Naturae, scis quos nobis terminos statuit? non esurire, non sitire, non algere.  Sen. Epist. 4. cap. 27. & 120. 
Thus did that generous Soul understand it, who pronounced so boldly,  
Habeamus aquam, habeamus polentam, Jovi ipsi de foelicitate controversiam faciamus.  Senec. Epist. III. 
And in truth, the more things are excellent and divine, the less are they of necessity, and of dependency on any other. Children and women have need of a thousand things, which men can make a shift well enough if they want them; and so likewise sick people, in comparison of those who have their health. Hercules, though he was quite naked, save only his Lion's skin and his Club, walked over all the World, of which he was adored. Take away the preventions of your mind, efface out of it what the tyranny of an evil Custom may have imprinted in it, renounce those sottish and idle opinions of a distracted multitude, examining by the Rules of Right Reason the natural necessities, and you will find yourself not only to be free from contemptuous indigence, but also enjoying an affluence of good things, not only beyond the sense, but likewise above the fear of Poverty.  
Divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parcè,  
Aequo animo, neque enim est penuria parvi.  Lucret. l. 5. 
The pompous Palaces, sumptuous Habits, a numerous retinue of Servants, are things very attractive, and full of a dazzling splendour; but apply the Canon and the Rule which we just now were mentioning, 
Apposita intortos ostendet regula mores.  Pers. Sat. 3. and you will find nothing in them of what we seek: nothing which hath its foundation in Nature: but if you will conform your life to what Nature demands, you will never be poor; if you will regulate it according to the opinions which are contrary to it, you then will never be rich nor accommodated. Would you now become more than you are? retrench your desires, instead of increasing your substance, Nihil interest utrum non desideres, an habeas, for the thing comes all to one; you will gain more moderation in your mind, than you can possibly hope for from the liberality of Fortune.  
Animus facit sibi parem nihil timendo, facit sibi divitias nihil concupiscendo.  Senec. Epist. 88 
It is the shortest and readiest way that you can take to come to this end. Brevissima ad divitias, per contemptum divitiarum via est. but if once you open the gate to Covetousness, if you once suffer the desire of superfluous things to enter, there are no longer any bounds and limits to conclude your desires.  
Post Darium, & Indos, pauper est Alexander: inventus est qui concupisceret aliquid post omnia.  Senec. Epist. 126. 
If you once but fall into this Dropsy, there is nothing then capable to quench your thirst: new Acquisitions will seem to you as so many means and ways whereby you may still get fresh supplies; and you will find, besides this disgrace, that by this depravation these vain and unprofitable things will then become as necessary. It is the Lesson that Zenon made after his shipwreck, when he said,  
Tunc secundis ventis navigavi, cùm naufragium feci.  D. Laert. 
This was it that made Crates the Theban throw his money into the Sea, by the counsel and persuasion of Diogenes; which made Xenocrates send back again the thirty Talents of gold to Alexander; and which invited Democritus (the first, says Pliny, who found out and made known the Society of Heaven and Earth) not to retain any thing of the profit which the contemplation of Heaven had caused him to make on the Olive-trees; having been since imitated by Sextus the Roman Philosopher: For it is here that the Paradox holds true,  Dimidium plus toto, 
Mediocrity is more valuable by far than abundance: because 
Multis eget, qui multa habet; magnaque indigentia non ex inopia magna, sed ex copia magna nascitur; jactura opus est non questa, & minus habendum est ut minus desit.  Agell. l. 9 c. 8.  
The foot, says Epictetus, aught to give shape and proportion to the shoe, and the necessities of the body to rule our possessions. Whatever goes beyond that measure, is rather a hindrance than any convenience: Too long and too weighty Vestments, do only serve to load and trouble us: The fifth wheel added to the Chariot, like a third eye to the face, will only disfigure it, and besides make it to go with the greater uneasiness. How happy was Socrates to be able to cry out in the midst of a well-stockt Fair,  Quàm multis non indigeo! 
And what a wonderful pleasure is it for me to see Carmides in the midst of Xenophon's Feast, to place his greatest cause of boasting in his poverty! for certainly it is in this apparent poverty that the true and essential Riches are found: it is the nourishing Mother of Sciences, the Couzen-germain of good Understanding, the great Friend of all Liberty, the inseparable Companion of solid Repose. But to be made really sensible of these things, we ought to be raised far above the common level of mankind; we ought to leave equally distant below ourselves, the Prince, the Magistrate, and the handicraft Artist:  Magno animo de rebus magnis judicandum est, alioqui videbitur illarum vitium esse, quod nostrum est. 
Purify your Soul, and free your mind from all anticipation, and you will then soon think otherwise than you have done hitherto.  
Aude hospes contemnere opes; & te quoque dignum  
Finge Deo, rebusque veni non asper egenis.  Evand. 8. Aeneid. 
Instead of flying poverty, you will seek and court it, as that which gives our Souls a seasoning temper of resolution and force; so as the rigour of a pinching Winter shall make our bodies to be more robust and prepared with fortitude: Si vis vacare animo, aut pauper sis oportet, aut pauperi similis.  
You will then observe that with great respect, and not without reason, the Poet hath named it to us terrible but in appearance, and only to the eye, Terribilis visu formae, as if he was resolved to let us understand thereby, that in effect, and if we took it rightly as we ought, it was a pure deception: It was that which made Cleanthes to bear the surname of 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, exhauriens puteos.  Diog. Laert. in Clean. because, that he might set to his studies in the day, he got his Livelihood in the night by drawing of water; but it rendered him the worthy Successor of Zenon. It was that which compelled one of the two Friends Hephestion Proaeresius to keep the house, whilst that the other appeared in public, having but one only Garment between them; but it likewise did put them in the Rank of the most Illustrious Sophisters of their time. Now if the extremity of indigence was accounted so tolerable by those virtuous men, and that so many others, as we could here name, why should we then complain, and exert our laments, being in a middle fortune? why should we esteem ourselves to be more pure, because we do not possess superfluous things, or rather because we are not possessed by them? As we are said to have a Fever, when it is that which holds and possesses us: But why do not we vaunt it, and make our boasts with Antisthenes, 
Xenoph. in Symp.  for having found out in this honest Poverty the greatest & the only true Riches that are in the world? They are those which Socrates had taught him, to contemplate at leisure all nature, to meditate with full liberty of mind its true effects; to enjoy an entire and absolute repose, and a real tranquillity; (the most estimable thing in the world, as he said, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the most delicate) to pass his days without interruption and disturbance, with Socrates; to hearken to his charming Discourses; to consider his excellent actions; to draw important Lessons from his least Movements. Supernatural Goods are those incorruptible Riches that are independent on Fortune; this wealth which is easy to conserve, and which not all the world can ever dispoil us of! Here, Philoponus, here is a Summary delineation of Good and Utility; which may proceed from an obscure and particular life, such as ours is: There only remains the pleasure and contentment of it to be examined, if notwithstanding any may doubt whether the Goods which we have now described be most pure and perfect; which cannot be so named, if they were not accompanied with delectation and pleasures.  Vbi non est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratum, ne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bonum quidem esse potest. Philop. 
If you will affirm to me, that Aristotle, Cato, and several others, to prove that Man is the most sociable of all Animals, do observe that there are none who would possess all these good things together, if they must enjoy them singly and alone, because in that solitude they cannot have any satisfaction nor contentment: That if at any time we are pleased with tormenting ourselves, as it were, in a stolen privacy, as Ajax did in Homer, and that our humour persuades us to retire ourselves from the rest of mankind, there alone like the Toad, to cowre over our venom; these are the effects of a profound Melancholy, which at that time bears too much Empire over us.  Sunt mala mentis gaudia. 
'Tis a false and a deceitful satisfaction and complaisance, which proceeds from a too hot and corrupted temperament, having no other foundation than our ill Complexion, which depraves and altars the functions of our Soul, giving to it the illusions of a false and imaginary pleasure. It was that made one of the Ancients say, that among the perils and dangers of life, that of Solitude was none of the least; and which might think, that under an austere mien, and the retired visage of a Philosopher, 
Nec visu facilis, nec dictu affabilis ulli.  De Polyph. Virg. 9 Aeneid. there might be found a true briskness and gaiety of spirit. As for my part, I am of opinion that the Poets have not expressed to us the torments of Prometheus, but only to figure out the pains that such as you are, do give yourselves every day. Mount Caucasus represents to us the solitude that you profess; the Eagle which knaws upon his still-renewing heart, is the contemplation wherewith you incessantly afflict your mind, in the narrow scrutiny of Causes, and of Reasons that arise one from the other, and so grow on ad infinitum. I would advise you, Hesychius, to follow the counsel which the good Tiresias gave to Menippus, 
Lucius in Necyth.  for the best that you possibly can embrace, when he advertised him softly in his ear, that if he desired to receive any contentment in his life, he should leave off seeking with so extraordinary a care and study, the beginnings and ends of all things; Hoc tibi puta vatem dixisse, for otherwise that excellent Wit will be more prejudicial than of advantage to you; you will only be ingenious to deceive yourself, and to create yourself a great deal of trouble. But, say you, otherwise this sweet and tranquil repose which is your sovereign good, is not to be found but in solitude: And pray, let me know, what have been the Charms which so powerfully bewitched you, that you place Felicity in a thing that will make those men who are fast locked up in sleep, to be far more happy than when they are never so much awake? the Bears, and the other stupid Animals, the greatest part of the year, would have a great advantage over you, 
Quid est otiosius verme?  Senec. Epist. 88 as Seneca himself affirm. Do not you see on the contrary, that an overgreat idleness and leisure is that which harrasses us most?  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ex otio negotium. 
It is then that we are most agitated, we are beating the bush, and that in hopes of giving our minds some pleasurable employment, we are only creating a deal of trouble to ourselves. Incertè errat Animus, praeter propter vitam vivitur, as old Ennius speaks, it consumes itself, being of a fiery nature, when we ever deny to give it nourishment. Is it not true, that the most free and metalsom Horses are soon spoiled in the stable? that the delicatest Gold strait rusts, if it be not used? that the most Oriental Pearls lose their grace and beauty, if they be not often rubbed and handled? that the most ravishing and subtle Perfumes of Arabia are corrupted and good for little, if they be not frequently stirred? And yet you place your greatest Contentment in being without Action, your last Felicity in the enjoyment of an halfdead Idleness. Remember, Hesychius, that the most miserable of all the damned, are the most idle, and who most contemplate at their ease.  
— Sedet, aeternúmque sedebit Infaelix Theseus, phlegyésque miserrimus omnes Admonet.  Virg. 6. Aeneid. 
You see that the Poet gives us to know and understand his torment only by the perpetual Repose to which he is condemned.  Hesych. 
If we ought to make this principal use of Philosophy, as Aristippus said, of speaking boldly to any whomsoever, you will not think it strange, if in the confidence of our ancient Acquaintance, I answer you with briskness and freedom. 'Tis an ordinary thing among all those, who, like you, spend their lives in the divers occupations and troublesome concerns of a tumultuous life, to have very bad conceptions of those, who smoothly roll away their years in the soft repose and silence of a private life, which proceeds not only from that natural inelination whereby every particular thing bears an affection for its like, and has an utter abhorrence for all that is contrary to it; but also from a pleasure, and an ambition which gets the mastery over the greatest part of mankind, and makes them passionately to desire to be esteemed prudent, and gravely considerate in the conduct of their fortune, and by consequence happy in that kind of life whereof they make profession. Now when they see persons, who by actions that are very different from theirs, show that they have inclinations and sentiments in all things contrary, they do believe that in them they have found out so many confessors of their Felicity and of their Judgement; from whence at last proceeds that picque and animosity against them. This is it which has invited so many great persons to keep themselves as much retired and concealed as possibly they could, and to leave to us the Laws and Precepts of doing the like, upon penalty of running the hazard of that malice and hatred which we are now speaking of. Epictetus' continually is proposing to us the ways of acting, and the comportments of Socrates, who scarcely, if ever, took upon him the state of a Philosopher: and all his Successors have agreed pretty well in this point,  Bene vixit, qui bene latuit. 
But because this public Envy pursues men of good Sense and Judgement even into their most particular Retirements, one ought, says Seneca, to imitate those Animals, who efface the marks of their Lurking-places, spoiling the tracts, and confounding the footsteps by which they get to them. So do you keep, adds he, your leisure and idle time, the most reserved and hid as possibly you can; but especially take heed of deriving any advantage from it; and thereby seeming to covet the title of a Philosopher, impute it rather to an indisposition which constrains you to repose; say that your Imbecility makes you, whether you will or no, to keep from action; or that your ill fortune does spitefully, and to your regret, call you off from those Charges and Employs. To conclude, accuse yourself rather of carelessness, and of an unconcerned humour, than suffer them to penetrate into your secret inclinations. This, Philoponus, is a Lesson that I have always esteemed to be most necessary and important, and under the Rules of which I intended to be conducted for ever; but I see clearly that I have not yet been capable absolutely to shelter myself from your anger and indignation, which transports you even to a reproaching of us. Your chagrin and perverse mien, say you, is insufferable, since it makes us to resemble the Polyphemi, and the savage Wolves. Pray, give me your permission to answer you, even by way of repartée and raillery, what the common Father of Philosophers did on the like occasion, That it is much better for a man to bear the injurious word of dumping, melancholy thinker, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, meditator.  Xenoph. in Symp. than that of a senseless, brainless no-wit.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, incogitans. 
You are not less angry, when you compare us to the miserable wretches that are damned in Hell, to the punishments of which I might with a much greater resemblance reduce and equal the calamitous labours of a life without any quiet and repose, such as yours is: for if the unfortunate Tantalus doth not endure a more cruel torment than that of being near those Goods which he sees, and yet cannot possess; how much more miserable is that man, who feels himself disrobed of himself, knows the contentment of the mind, and the solid substantial pleasures wherewith that may be delighted, and yet he cannot satisfy himself with any of them, nor enjoy so much as one poor small moment of rest and tranquillity? Now this is that which the men of action and business, like you, do prove, and are sensible of daily; this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Greeks, which cannot be well translated into Latin or English, 
Agell lib 8. cap. 16.  having in it such an I know not what peculiarity and properness, that it absolutely ravishes a man without leaving him the least possession of himself, to say that he must partage and share out his life in such a manner, that there are only some certain days, and a few swift hours, for him to bestow upon such and such Occupations; and to those too he must only lend, and not give up himself entirely: I should account you far less unjust, if you absolutely condemned our Philosophy, than when you are resolved to moderate and limit them so untowardly.  
Jure enim eo meliore quo major est, mediocritatem desideras.  Luc. de Faceb. 
Besides, this is voluntarily to make the half of your time for certain miserable, and so indeed for the rest which you think does belong to you. I desire no other testimony than that of your own Resentment, which, I am sure, will make you confess, that your mind was never capable of receiving this division, without the perplexing remembrances of your various affairs come in to thwart it, to give you insufferable wracks and tortures, the enemies of contentment; and truly now if you can have your mind worthily stayed, and in a Philosophical calm, amidst the inquietudes of a Court, and the agitations of a Palace, I would permit you willingly then to play the Philosopher with us: but yet in the mean time you dare to reproach us that we have not any faithful and real pleafures. Alas, we should be a great deal beside the cushion, if we should assure 
Gaudium nisi Sapienti non contingere.  Senec. Epist. 65. or if we should say, Sapientem illum esse qui plenus gaudio, hilaris & placidus inconcussus, cum Diis ex pari vivit.  
And truly if we had found that the Stoics had rightly called Joy an accessary, and as it were a dependence upon Virtue, 
Gaudium & laetitiam esse virtutis accessionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Diog. Laert. in Zenone. it would then follow, that the most eminent and exalted Virtues, which are the Intellectual, by reason of their object, should be still attended with the most perfect contentment, in as much as effects do ever result from the nature of their causes, and are commensurate thereto; and so by consequence the Contemplations of Philosophers would meet with satisfactions that are more pure, and pleasures more exquisite, than can be those of an active life: but would you know what it is that makes you pass such a prejudicial judgement upon our way of living so solitary and retired? it is because you can't tell how to pass away the time, nor entertain yourselves without company; and therefore you imagine that you are never in a worse posture, nor more desolate, than when it is your evil fortune to be alone. Now (according to the ancient and plain Proverb) you measure other people's Corn by your own bushel, and think their humours resemble your own, when (alas!) it is quite contrary with them; for they are never more brisk or jolly, than when they are conversing with themselves; for they find that within which is unknown to you, and which gives them the greatest satisfaction and contentment imaginable.  
Talis Sapientis est animus, qualis mundi status super Lunam semper illic serenum est.  Senec. Epist. 60. 
This is the great advantage which Philosophers have over the rest of mankind. Antisthenes' being demanded wherein principally his Philosophy was serviceable to him, gave this answer, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Mecum colloqui posse.  Diog. Laert. in Antisth.  
It is the Prerogative of men of good sense, who, being alone, know how to enjoy a virtuous and an innocent Complaisance with themselves.  
Nisi sapienti sua non placent: omnis stultitia laborat fastidio sui.  Senec. Epist. 9 
Those elevated Souls that are freed from the sottish fancies of the Populace, never suffer any disgusts from themselves; solitude does not astonish them; they have not any of that gnawing of a criminal Conscience; their Genius does not persecute them: but in a full enjoyment of their Integrity and Innocence, they converse with Intelligences, contemplate the immense greatness and power of Nature; they consider the causes and effects of Heaven and Earth, meditate on the beginnings and ends of all things.  Ex superiore loco homines vident, ex aequo Deos. 
They do not there languish in a discontented and froward idleness; such a solitude is not capable of saddening a soul that is divinely transported: Do not we see the Eagle, which prefers the deserts, where, from the supremest Region of the Air, it contemplates the Sun at the nearest approach, far before the company of all other Birds? Imagine so it is with a Spirit truly philosophical, which being exercised in the Art of mental Discourse and Meditation, voluntarily separates from the multitude, which it leaves beneath it, that it may come nearer to the Divinity it contemplates. This was it which made Aristotle to conclude, 
Eth. ad Nic. l. ult. c. 8.  at the end of his Morals, that the more a man is contemplative, the more he is happy, and assimilated to the Divine Essences, which have not received this denomination from God, 
Plut. de Plu. ph. l. 1. c. 9  but from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, to contemplate, because it is their business, and ordinary exercise. And moreover, because that every thing is naturally carried out to its good, all men have an inclination and a Philosophical desire of being learned and knowing. Now Science is not attained but by Contemplation. 
Oportet Intelligentem speculari phantasmata,  7 Phy. c. 4. and that cannot be possessed but in a grand repose and tranquillity.  
Quievisse ac stetisse Dianaeam, id vocamus scire ac prudentem esse, says the Master of the School. We have all then from Nature a propension to rest and contemplation, as to our greatest felicity. And if it be true that all the accomplishment of the natural desire is accompanied with real pleasures, and with volupty; The Philosopher, who in the enjoyment of a profound repose, contemplates and knows the natural truths, and the essences of all things, as much as they are humanely perceptible, shall questionless receive a most accomplished Joy, and a most perfect Contentment.  
O Meliboee, Deus nobis haec otia fecit!  Virg. Eclog. 1. 
This, Philoponus, this is the certain estate and true condition of him who is without any falsehood, pretence, or disguise Philosophical. And if any, perchance, have appeared to you to be such as you were pleased but just even now to decipher them, pray believe that it was their beard and their chin have made you take for Philosophers those who only have a vain cover and show of it, and are only Rams puffed up, such as those of Apuleius, which seemed to you to be real men. We have so many wrangling Pedants, so many contentious Grammarians, so many fluttering and extravagant Humanists, all who do make a Profession of courtship to Philosophy, and are mightily enamoured with it, that it is no marvel if many persons make such disadvantageous Judgements of it, and so much contemn it; though it be a very unjust and wicked thing to make that only responsible for the defaults of its Professors. All Arts and Sciences being herein in a much better condition than that; for one does not impute to Architecture, if any person makes an ill use of the Rule or the Compass; nor to Music, if he strikes not pleasantly and with a delicate touch the Lute or Harp; but strait it is concluded that such a one is by no means a good Architect or Musician. 
Diog. Laert. in Aristip.  Why therefore do you asperse Philosophy, for all the fooleries and impertinences of such Followers, or rather of such Impostors, like to those heedless and inconsiderate lovers of Penelope, who took for her, Melantha and Polidora, her servants? Certainly whosoever have been capable of knowing it best, and of deserving its good graces, they are those who make it least to appear, who have more discretion in their happy fortune, and who keep its favours the most reserved and secret.  Fugit multitudinem, fugit paucitatem, fugit etiam unum. 
Seneca verily thought that his friend Lucilius was become his favourite, when he writ to him.  
Epist. 11. & 32.  Quaeris quid me, maximè ex his quae de te audio delectu? quod nihil audio, quod plerique ex his quos interrogo nesciunt, quid agas. 
Those proud Sophisters, as the learned Thrasons, who only swear by the name of that Mistress, who have only Axioms in their mouths, who only speak Assertions and Physical Conclusions, are those who least of all know the beauty which they so much boast of and pretend to serve, as also they have least share in her affections. The true Professors and sincere Lovers of that fair and divine Penelope, are those whom Aristotle describes to us in the third Treatise of his Politics, as being Intelligences invested with our humane form; or, to say better with him, as even Gods conversing with Men. And here it is that I would desire you to observe, with how little reason you have been desirous to subject them to the ordinary Rules of others lives, and to the common manner of acting with the multitude. Such persons, says he, do not make any part of the Republic, which is an Assembly of those who live in Equality, because their Eminence puts them above their Peers, and distinguishes them too much: The Laws do not respect them, because they are themselves the living and animated Laws, which rule and govern all others; none have any right and power to command them, because they are Kings and perpetual Dictator's, whom Reason will have all the world to obey: If then you will be so rash and full of temerity, to prescribe to them Statutes and Ordinances, know that you would fain likewise impose them upon Jupiter himself. I have nothing to do, says also that great Epictetus, with the Laws of Cassius, or of Masurius, since I am obedient to those of the Author of Nature; and the Stoic of Cicero, in the fourth of his Academical Questions, laughs at the Laws of Lycurgus, of Solon, and of the twelve Tables, protesting that there are no true and real Laws, but those of his Sage Master. Such was, adds Aristotle, Hercules among the Argonauts, whom, for that very reason, the Ill-smelling ship Arga would not receive among the other persons, because he surpassed them all with too much Excellence and Disparity. If this description seemeth strange to you, observe, the better to comprehend it, that there are two sorts of Republic, the small and particular one, and the great one, which is that of the Universe. It is of the first that Apollonius Tyaneon must be understood to speak, when he said  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ego quidem de nullâ rep. sum sollicitus, vivo enim sub Diis. 
And it is in respect of the last, that the Philosophers, of whom we speak, are called Cosmopolites, or Citizens of the World. They cannot, because of their disproportioned greatness, make a part of the bodies of particular Estates, as we have just now said: but considering them in this great City of the Universe, 
Terminos civitatis suae in solo metientes.  Sen. de vit. beat. cap. 31. they make of it the most beautiful, the most important, and the most considerable Members after the Gods, if you will comprehend them in it, so as Epictetus did, and the other Philosophers of his Sect.  
Now if you would further demand of me what is their Employment here, and to what purpose they serve, I will tell you: They keep us from being ignorant of the marvellous things of the Almighty, and of Nature, being the witnesses, interpreters, and admirers of them. Pythagoras compares them very gentily to the spectators of the Olympic games, who leaving to others the Courses, the Combats, the Bargains, the Sales, 
Arrianus, l. 2. c. 14.  and the other various Occupations, content themselves with contemplating all these things in repose, though the Merchants make a wry mouth at them, or laugh them to scorn. Others likewise have very appositely considered this world as a magnificent Theatre, upon which so many kinds of life, as there are diversity of personages, are represented. The Philosophers are found sitting, considering the Universe with an extreme pleasure, whilst that Kings, Princes, and great Monarches are as so many Actors of the Comedy, who seem only to play for the content and satisfaction of those worthy spectators. Diogenes understood it so perfectly, when he was pleasant with Alexander, and told him in way of raillery and contempt, that he was master of his dispositions, and he wanted but a very small matter not to be inferior to him. And truly, since that the King was like so many other persons, a slave to his passions, Diogenes, who commanded them, making them to truckle and be subject to Reason, might very well boast of his mastering the Masters of Alexander; and what had he in that pre-eminence, but that which we give to Philosophers above the greatest Kings upon Earth, which are conformed to the order and disposition of all the Universe? where we believe that the Intelligences of Sciences, and of Illumination, are to be preferred and exalted far beyond those of Powers and Dominions. But notwithstanding I do not doubt but that you will think these thoughts to be very strange, as being so extremely different from the ordinary Sentiments, and received Opinions: but you know that there are no Arts nor Professions without their Paradoxes; as when the Physician order the Eye to be catarackt to have its sight restored, 
Arrianus, lib. 1. c. 25.  or to break the Leg to make the person walk upright: why then should we wonder that Philosophy, the sovereign Physician of our Souls, hath also hers, and that it is very necessary for her to give us Paradoxes, provided that, as Cleanthes said, they be not Paralogues, 
Arrianus, lib. 9 cap. 1.  or absurd and unreasonable.  
Now that we may rightly know and comprehend them, we ought to be initiated into its sacred Mysteries: That we may appropriate them, and profit by them, we ought to have the Spirit of understanding and the Philosophical genius. A weak stomach, and which is not accustomed to such solid viands, will reject them, instead of digesting them, and of being nourished by them. We need not therefore wonder if those persons, who feed upon that Aliment which is so different from ours, have also the Taste and the Appetite to be as much disresembling.  Non idem sapere possunt, qui aquam & vinum bibunt. 
Do you think, Philoponus, in the perpetual agitations of your various affairs, and in the servile distractions of your eminent charges, to possess the same even pulse of mind, and to have the same cogitations with those who are only taken up in the Culture of Philosophy, are only exercised and busied in Contemplation, have no other greater pleasure than in this solution and separation of the soul and body, as Philosophers only? For as Action consists in the movement, 
Arist. 1. de Ani. cap. 3.  so doth Speculation, as we have set it forth, consist all in repose and leisurely idleness, Intellectio similis est cuidam quieti & statui. which are things diametrically contrary and opposite, and which also produce fruits of a very different nature. But since I have as yet declined revealing to you the most secret Articles of the Philosophical Profession, I will not any longer make it a difficulty to trust to your loyalty and faithfulness the most inward Reserve of my Soul, and make you to see quite naked, in what terms I saw myself formerly, and also in what condition and quality of mind I find myself now at present to be. I have been no less than you affected with an haughty ambition of appearing in the world; there was nothing I left unattempted to satisfy that passion; I would have had recourse to , and to the other Herbs, if I had believed, as Pliny reports, 
Lib. 25. cap. 10.  that they would any ways have contributed to my glory and reputation. As for Riches, although that passion was never much in me, but in a very weak and languishing degree, if it were that which I accord in with the Spaniard,  El sennor dinero por un gran Cavallero: 
Methinks Hesiod had very great reason, when he said that money was another Soul which made us to live, and subsist.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
As to those pleasures which accompany Honours and Riches, my complexion did not render me incapable of any of them; and I had natural inclinations as strong and powerful it may be as any other to make me seek and court the enjoyment of them; and I was also very extremely engaged in their pursuit, as you may, if you please, well remember, if you have still any memory of our first acquaintance; when that my good Genius carried me to the knowledge of some persons of sound Sense and Judgement, which gave to mine the first illuminations, and made me to discern the first glimmering and beams of true Philosophy, their manner of living being absolutely different from mine, their Ratiocinations and their Sentiments opposite to those which I had till that time retained, with what zeal and propension I have always perceived in me to the study and love of the truth in all things, and indeed above all things; and yet notwithstanding the efforts of first intelligences and apprehensions, the violence of evil habits, the tyranny of customs, the torrent of the multitude, had easily carried me away in my first course.  De me, facilè enim transitu ad plures Socrati, Latoni, & Coelio excutere mentem suam dissimilis multitudo optuisset. 
I was then in the greatest hazard imaginable to fall, if that Socraetical Demon, which had a care of my conservation, had not remedied it, ordering me that little Voyage which I made through the principal parts of Europe, just as good Physicians do frequently prescribe the change of Air to those whom they would fain preserve. And certainly that transplantation is no less profitable to Men than to Plants, which we see do thrive and grow much better by that means.  Et jam aquarum suavioris sunt quas errand. 
And we may observe, that in Heaven the moving Planets are of much greater consideration than those that are fixed, and do not stir at all; so likewise may we take notice how exceedingly those ancient famous men of Greece did value Peregrination, such as were the lives of Thales, Solon, Cleobulus, Pythagoras, Plato, Democritus, and several others, who gave sufficient and assured testimonies of it: and if you will give me leave, I will tell you upon this subject, what I always thought of the long sleep of Epimenides of fifty seven years, having left his Father's Sheep to stray whither they would, whilst he took that profound sleep. For what can that Fable signify, but a long Voyage, during all the time that we do frequently let our domestic affairs, as it were, sleep? The Paternal sheep, that is, the goods which our Parents have left us, then running a great hazard of being lost and gone: But so it was, that after this long night, 
D. Laert. in Epimenid.  or to say better, absence, he returned most illustriously to his own home, and most beloved of the Gods, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is preferable to all other considerations. I will not say that my Voyages have been attended with so happy a success; but I can assure you, that this is the time of my life, which in my esteem I have the best employed, since which I have given myself the liberty to form it, and to regulate the course of it, according as Reason hath made me see it was most for my interest and advantage. The Gods had given me the being of it, but it was Philosophy that hath procured me its well-being.  Deorum munus vivere, Philosophiae bene vivere. 
The wishes of my Parents had destined me to a thousand Servitudes, Philosophy hath brought me off from them, and put me into a full and true liberty: The Laws and Customs seemed to oblige me to actions that are shamefully laborious; Philosophy has given me an exemption therefrom, and hath blessed me with a sweet Repose and Felicity.  Summa beatae vitae solido tranquillitas, & ejus inconcussa, fiducia. 
And yet you think strangely of my ways of living, you believe my solitude to be blame-worthy, you fancy my retreat to be shameful, my condition poor and beggarly, my tranquillity idle and reproachable, and my pleasures imaginary even to extravagance. But will you please to make use of a little of your natural Reason, and I will desire no other Judge than yourself to determine our difference. Is it not true, (I'll submit to your Conscience to tell me) that although the eminent dignity of your Office renders you never so much respected in this Country, yet notwithstanding because there still remains something thing superior to you, your ambition is not satisfied, and your desires set you upon the wrack, as often as you exalt your eyes on high? Is it not true, that although you possess great Riches and a vast Estate, yet if there be any thing wanting which you esteem and passionately aspire to, your mind is far more troubled at your missing of them, than the enjoyment of all the other things you have can give you contentment? Is it not true, that although you give up yourself to all the pleasures and indulgences you possibly can, you cannot forbear desiring and wishing for more, and imagining to your self a great many others, whose privation most extremely afflicts you? Have you ever been sensible of any joy which hath not been attended with an affection more powerful and pressing, in the midst, and as it were from the very source of your most delicious pastimes and recreations? Hath there not risen some inward disgust, and some disagreeable bitterness, which hath surpassed all that hath been most sweet and pleasing to you? But on the contrary, if I think and find myself so much advanced above all your Honours and Adorations, as that I can despise and scorn them without doing any violence to myself, and knowing the evil consequence of them,  Contentus eo usque crevisse, quo manum fortuna non porrigit. 
If I do not consider all your Riches and Wealth, but only as pretty little fooleries, and nuts which Fortune throws out to men, just as we do to little children, pleasing myself with tasting now and then one which some accident has fling even to me too, according as Epictetus permits it, 
Arian. l. 4. c. 7.  whilst that others are struggling and contending who shall get the most. If I, acknowledging your greatest pleasures to be but ridiculous and simple, aye, and ruinous too, am satisfied with my own enjoyments, and know them to be pure, solid, and true, which all the world is not capable to make them be in the least troublesome to me, nor can hinder me of; and if they be such as I have made demonstrable to you in my precedent discourse; if all those things are true, and if this be justly the posture and condition of both; tell me, if there remains yet any ingenuity in you, and tell me candidly, which of the two seems to be most happy? to which will you adjudge the advantage? which is that which you would prefer? O, Philoponus! can you be able to hesitate upon this is the pronouncing of your Judgement? And if, as I could easily have done it, I had made you see more nakedly and plainly the ravishing Beauties of our Divine Philosophy, 
Ennapius in Maxio.  ha'! what extreme passions, and what admirable transports of love would you have for her! If this Celestial Deity had but once touched you to the quick, what an unquenchable thirst of Discipline and Learning would have ever been upon you for the future, and make you spend the rest of your life in another guess manner than hitherto you have done! If you had but ever so little tasted the sweetness and pleasurableness of a solitary Conversation, and your mind had taken any repast of the Nectar and Ambrosia▪ of its charming Contemplations, how would you presently have quitted all manner of other food than that, with the greatest contempt in the world! and how would you cherish the repast of a private and particular life, to enjoy its entertainment without any trouble, and how would you prefer our deserts and solitudes to the most eminent and endearing companies, and to the most important actions of your politic life! It is not for that, that we leave the Towns, to dwell in Woods and savage Mountains; our mind finds its Hermitage every where; and in the most numerous Assemblies of men in the greatest Towns and Cities in the world, I very frequently find myself in a Desert.  Magna Civitas magna mihi solitudo. 
And I am commonly as much alone as could be Orpheus in Sylvis, inter Delphinas' Arion. provided that my Soul may conserve its liberty, and that its functions are not oppressed under the weight and burden of your importune and troublesome affairs, exempt from passion and trouble, it will find every where Gods with whom to converse, it will go out through all the extent of Nature, and by the means of a strong and a vigorous Contemplation, will make Voyages to the furthest parts of the World; and spiritual Navigations, where it will discover the Americans, and the new Worlds, full of Riches and Rarities until now unknown.  
Diffugiunt Animi terrores, moenia mundi  
Discedunt, totum video per inane geri res,  
Apparet Diuûm numen, sedesque quietas.  
And do you think that there are not every day found out in the Intellectual Globe, places which are not yet broke up nor cultivated (as we see every year almost are discovered by some or other) which have not belonged to you, nor been inhabited as yet by any, as ever it can be known? Now this is one of the Correspondences, and one of the Reports which is most truly made from the great to the little World. Now if the discovery be not made by one as well as by another, it is only the defect of Courage or Address; the Art of Speculation and Meditation, which is the certain spiritual Navigation, being either despised, or else absolutely left off; and every one contenting himself with the knowledge and science of their Fathers, as we do of the Lands of this Country, without troubling ourselves about those of Canada. But when there are any Heroic Souls, as the Tiphi or Coulombes in this spiritual Ocean, they find out ways that are wholly novel, and make a descent into deeps unknown, full of rarity and admiration. But I fancy you do not much care what is done or passes in other Hemispheres: nor would I have made so long an Harangue, but for my justification, and in some manner to satisfy the good will and affection you have always testified to me.  Philop. 
It is not without good reason that your Aristotle hath said, that by solitude men became  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, aut Fera, aut Deus: 
For I must confess sincerely to you, that if you are not something more than ordinary and humane, you have such sallies of mind, and extravagances so bizarre and particular, as cannot be lodged under any reasonable Figure, without making it to run up and down the streets like a Bedlam.  
Adieu.  
Illi Mors gravis incubat  
Qui nimis nonus omnibus:  
Ignotus moritur sibi.  Sen. ex Thyeste. 
FINIS.