Stoa Triumphans: OR, Two sober Paradoxes, VIZ. 

1. The Praise of Banishment.  
2. The Dispraise of Honours.   Argued in two Letters by the noble and learned marquis, Virgilio Malvezzi. Now Translated out of the Italian, with some Annotations annexed.  Felix exilium quod talem meruit Praeconem. 
LONDON, Printed by J. G. 1651.   

To his truly honoured friend, David Gwin, Esq  
THis ensuing Translation with the whole dress and Equipage of it was the production of some spare time, when I was debarred from better employment, to wit, the exercise of my function and ministry. I found contentment in the Reading, and therefore have committed it to the press for the public use in a more intelligible language.  
I send it forth upon the Reputation of the Author, which is very eminent in the Commonwealth of Learning: which will commend it to the world and your reading, without any other Bush at the door, 
— Nec Phoebo gratior ulla est  
Quàm quae Virgilii praescripsit pagina nomen.   
His pen upon paper is like a Prince his stamp upon coin, which makes any thing current and sterling, what ever the metal be, and how small soever the model. Hereupon I am induced to believe that these Letters (which I may call the marquis his Parva Moralia) will find as good acceptance with the Judicious, as his Parva Politica did, I mean his Romulus and Tarquin, and other small, but wellwrought pieces.  
I have prefixed your name (Sir) before this Tract, that those that shall chance to see and read it, may also read my Gratitude, and the Title which you have in me, and whatsoever I can call mine; which you have purchased by manifold kindnesses and seasonable favours, whereof I shall retain a grateful memory while I am master of one.  
Since the death of your honoured Brother (whose name is like ointment poured forth) we find that of the Poet verified in you, 
— Uno avulso, non deficit alter  
Aureus, & simili frondescit virga metallo.   
One golden bough being lopped off, another (of the same metal) succeeds in the room of it. For his Benignity, Candour, and other Noble and virtuous Habits survive in you; so that the loss of him is (in a good measure) recompensed in your Succession.  
God bless you with health, and the fruition of many and happy days: which are the hearty wishes of  
Your very affectionate friend, T. P. June 3.   

An Advertisement of the Translator to the Reader.  
THese two Letters (gentle Reader) like those two mites of the Widow, may serve to increase thy Treasure, if thou hast any; or to be thy Treasure, if thou hast none. The one is a Philosophical Lecture of Patience and aequanimity, to an Exiled friend: The other is a Defiance to all worldly Honours and Dignities. Both were written by th● Lamp of Epictetus, and do breath that virilem Sapi●ntiam 
a Consolat: ad Helviam c. 12.  Stoico●um, which Seneca doth so much extol, that masculine and Heroic bravery of the Stoics, whereby they did put off man, and tread above the stage of humane chances.  
In both, the Author's pen drops Balm as well as Ink, sovereign oil to assuage inward griefs, and invisible wounds: As the tongue, so the pen of a wise man is health, saith that Proverb of wisdom Solomon, Prov. 12.18. And therefore these lines may be of good use for the Sons of Benoni's sorrow in this Kingdom. For though the sacred Scriptures are the best Nepenthe and Lenitifs of sorrow (whose Leaves are for the 
b Revel. 22.2.  healing of the Nations;) Yet think it not amiss to use Exoterick writers withal, whose Receipts have oftentimes proved cordial and effectual to fortify the weak hearts and feeble hands of some that would wisely apply them.  
The Author is Malvezzi, a man above his Titles Noble; whose Works have carried his name and fame as far as Learning hath spread her wings.  
Malvezzi, he whom 'tis as hard to praise  
To merit, as it is to imitate his ways 
c Sir Jo: Sucklin of the Translat. of Romulus and Tarquin.   
They that studied him in his own Language have thought him worthy the acquaintance of more Nations than his own, so that most of his learned Labours have been translated, some into Latin, and some into English; and that by Noble hands. 
d The Earl of Monmouth and John Kruusse a noble Suede.   
And because any Essays and delineations of his pen are worth Volumes of some other writers; as Giotto's Circle (which he drew perfunctorily and in a trice) did surpass the laboured pieces of some other Artists; I have attired these smaller pieces and diversions of his studies, in English livery, that they may serve as Pages to wait upon his other works in this kingdom.  
His style is right Laconic, strict and succinct; so fare, that his brevity doth sometimes cloud his sense, and makes each period a Riddle to some capacities; so that I am bold (now and then) to enlarge the room for to let in more light; for his own words do scarce bring us home to his meaning: And I may say of him as A. Gellius said of Sallust; that he was Exquisitissimus brevitatis Artifex.  
But he is as rich in matter as he is frugal and parsimonious in words, as though his full-stored soul desired to stive as much good matter (as he could) in a little room. The Rags which are added in the margin may be useful for some Readers; And the Annotations annexed may serve to show that some Paradoxes, and singular strains that are found in the Text, are suitable to the doctrine of the autient Sages, especially those that have Commenced in Porticu Zenonis.  
The greater letters refer you to some Annotations at the later end; and the lesser to the marginal Notes.   


The occasion and Argument of the first Letter.  
IN the Commonwealth of (A) Genoa, as in that of Athens of old, the device of (B) Ostracism is put in practice. Hence it came to pass, that the Illustrious Signior John Vincent Imperiale was adjudged to banishment: A Cavalier of much renown and fame in the world, no less for eminency of learning, and the glory of a great Commander, than for noble Extraction, and gentle deportement and behaviour.  
The pretence was, That by an order from him a certain Musician was put to death, who is yet alive. The innocent and noble Gentleman refused not the occasion to approve himself an obsequious Commonwealth's man: For he (to give content to his dear country, as well by his absence, as he had faithfully served her by his presence) did withdraw himself (though old and infirm) into the City of Bononia; Where as he is greatly honoured by all, so is he dear beloved of the Noble marquis Virgilio Malvezzi; Who out of his love and friendship, being moved to a compassion of so strange an Accident, frames this Letter to his undaunted Friend, with an intention rather to express (with his pen) the Resentments of a soul that honoured him, than to administer Consolation to a mind which always appears greater 
a C. Marius mihi in secundis rebus unus ex fortunatis hominibus; in adversis, unus ex summis viris videbatur. Cic. Parad. 2.  in Adversity than in Prosperity.   

To the Noble Signior, JOHN VINCENT IMPERIALE.  
VIRGILIO MALVEZZI His most devoted Servant, and affectionate Friend.  
WHen I had the happiness (Noble Sir) to see you at Bononia, and to enter myself in the number of your Servants, I conceived you Triumphant, though you told me you were an Exile: I knew you Innocent, though you cried Guilty. I had scarce departed out of Bononia, but our Reverend Archdeacon Paleotti (I know not whether to comfort me, or undeceive me) did send me a Letter fraught with clear and irrefragable Demonstrations of your Innocence.  
If I had not cause so much to grieve for your Nobleness, I should grieve for Him: Let him send his Remonstrances and Apologies to those that never saw you; your very looks and the lineaments of your Countenance are more convincing arguments to me (than any other) of your good abeare and innocence.  
He that hath eyes which can penetrate beyond the Surface and outside, may (by discoursing with a man) find that speech of the Wiseman true; A man is known by the eye, and the face discovers wisdom: 
Ecclus 19.29.  not that we can read in that 
b Vultus animi janua & tabula. Cic. de pet. Consul.  Tablet what a man shall be, but what he is: He speaks not (sure) of the superstitious art of metoposcopy, he intends (perhaps) Natural philosophy. Man is an harmonious organ; the heart tunes and plays it, the tongue sings, & every part & particle in it (though never so little) yields a distinct sound, and varies the effect according to the variety of affections: because all the parts are sustained by the spirits, and all the spirits are the Issue of the heart: 
Omnis motus animi suum quendam à natura habet vultum, & sonum & gestum: totumque corpus hominis & ejus omnis vultus o●…esque voces, ut nervi in fidibus, ita sonant, ut à motu animi sunt pulsae. Cic de Orat. lib. 3  As this is affected with Joy, or Sorrow, love, hatred, or fear; so it doth strike a different note or sound: when the Heart toucheth one string, and the Tongue sings to another, the Speech and the Countenance do not make consort; and he that cannot perceive this soloecism, and observe this dissonantie, must accuse his senses of much weakness, and fly to that unsavoury (though much seasoned) maxim, written for blind men only: That it is necessary to eat a bushel of salt with a man, before you can well understand him. Your Lordship must subscribe to my opinion herein: for having seen many Provinces of the world; been made known to Kings and Princes; and having conversed with so many Cavaliers of Honour; it will be no small comfort unto you to have left so little need of justifying you by other men's writings, that your very 
c Dominatur maxime vultus, hoc amamus, hoc odimus, hoc plurima intelligimus Quintil. Instit. Orator.  visage hath already excused and acquitted you among all that have seen you.  
I have taken (indeed) my pen in hand with an intent to solace you with a few lines, which discover rather my affection than your necessity: to write Letters consolatory unto you were to go to cure a man in perfect health; though it is true that healthful men (sometimes) have need of Physic, though not to restore, yet to preserve health. Yet I do not write to solace you but myself: your mind hath no need of cordials, but my heart hath. I that had a breast of proof, and could bear my own disasters without perturbation, do find my heart most relenting and tender toward yours. (C) A Stoical indolency doth not well consist with friendship: A friend that undertakes to comfort, is not like a Physician that undertakes a cure: A Physician cannot heal others except he be in health himself; but a friend is so much the fit to administer Physic (if I may so speak) by how much the more affected and diseased he is himself: I am sensible of your Lordship's innocence and banishment, I cannot entertain any joy, except I show myself impious; and yet I cannot be sorry, except I should wish you culpable: yet I am not grieved for that you are innocent; but I am sorry for that you are banished: and now since you are banished, I am glad you are innocent. There be some of such weak minds that bear their troubles with the more impatience, when they know themselves to be innocent of the crime that is laid to their charge; whereas (indeed) they might bear them the better, because they know themselves such. Virtue is not restrained or confined, it hath a place or theatre to show itself in all fortunes: A man that is condemned, (if he be innocent, and doth not vex) he doth exercise the virtue of Patience: if he be guilty and doth acknowledge himself so, he doth cooperate with that of Justice. When a subject complains of some unreasonable pressures and molestations, he is unjust, because he would be so: but when he complains of just and deserved punishment, he is not only unjust, because he is so, but because he grieves; And because he grieves that others are not so too. To complain of sufferings is either to complain of an occasion given to merit thereby; or (at least) to complain of a punishment inflicted for having demerited. To grieve for the one, is weakness, & not to grieve for the other is perverseness: such a one hath cause to complain, not of Fortune but of himself; not for what he suffers, but for what he hath committed. (D) There is no evil in the world, but what is committed: that which is inflicted, rather seems evil than is so, because it comes to pass by the 
d Quicquid patimur mortale genus, quicquid facimus, venit ex alto. Senec. Herc. Oeteo.  will of God, which is always good, and either permits it, or is the Author of it.  
Whereas men should stoop and strike sail to Fortune, they revile and blaspheme it: if there were not some cause to bear with their ignorance, there would be just cause to chastise their rashness: for we call that (E) Fortune, which happens, or falls out we know not how, nor why; or else quite without, and beyond our expectation: wherefore to complain of Fortune, and not to blame our own ignorance, is to complain of the D●vine providence. Such things as happen unto us, and not by us, we should rather adore, than censure; because there God's wisdom hath a greater stroke & share, where ours hath the lesser. A man should take care to deserve that which is good, though not to obtain what he deserves; And yet he hath (in effect) obtained it, when he hath deserved it: For the greatest good that we can have, is 
e Est quidem vera felicitas felicitate dignum videri. Plin. Paneg. ad Trajan.  to deserve that greatest good that we can enjoy. He that studies to merit that he may enjoy some good, makes merit become interest, and cannot arrive at good which is purely so; because he hath adulterated and tainted the good, when he hath tainted the merit. Fortune hath no share in meriting, it hath in obtaining: and he that hath obtained, is not now secure (altogether) because he is not altogether in the condition of merit.  
It is a high way saying, That we are 
f Faber est unusquisque fortunae suae Cic. in Catone Maj. Aedeplol Sapiens fingit fortunam sibi. Terent.  Architects of our own Fortune: He that said so, said not well, because he meant not well: he that builds Fortune, doth demolish it; it cannot be wrought or framed but with the tools of Virtue; and so it becomes a statue of Virtue, which was carud for the statue of Fortune: yet is it true that though we be not Authors of its entity, yet we are of its quality; it is never that which we make, yet it is always such as we make it; It doth not consist with merit, if it be not a sorry one: merit-doth destroy it where it finds it; but where she doth find merit, she doth increase it: if she be good, with moderation; if bad and wretched, with patience; she would stand and stay with your Noble Lordship, and therefore returns to you in your disasters, that she may improve that merit which in your felicity she did impair.  
An adverse fortune is rather to be wished (in my opinion) though we deserve a prosperous one: In this vast Ocean men are oftener shipwrakt in the haven of tranquillity, than amidst the surges and billows of disasters: miseries do humble us, and therefore we hold under them, but prosperity swells us with pride, and therefore they 
g Miseriae tolerantur, faelicitate corrumpimur. Verba Galbae apud Tacit l. 1. Histor.  spoil us. If every man hath his Fortune, and every Fortune its wheel, how can we complain that our wheel descends? since one part of the wheel doth not descend so much one way, but it ascends another way: those men only complain of Fortune, who have their souls so tacked to their bodies, that when one falls & praecipitates, the other doth so too: but those who possess one part of the wheel with their souls, and another with their bodies, do wish always the adverse or contrary part of the wheel; and if they have it not, they make it so: because one part mounts towards heaven, when the other hurries down towards hell.  
A wise man bears his head above the 
h Talis est sapientis animus qualis mundi status supra lunaan, semper illic serenum est. Sen. Ep. 59  clouds: tempests cannot reach him, he is not shaken with winds nor battered with thunder: Princes and States may well be Lords of our bodies, but cannot of our 
i Servitus non cadit in tot●…̄ hominem: pars melior ejus excepta est. Sen. de benefi● l. 3. c. 20.  souls; or if they be of any souls, it is of such souls as were (before) made by their owners, slaves of their bodies. He that is immersed (both soul and body) in this puntilio or narrow point, such as the Globe of the Earth is, doth live always in the centre of this point, both soul and body: when he doth (by his better part) raise himself to higher speculations, he lives happily with the body, wherever his mind enjoys any felicity.  
If all the circumference of the earth be but 
k Punctum est in quo navigatis, in quo bellatis, in quo regna disponitis, etc. Sen. Nat. quaest. l. 1. Praefat.  a point of the Universe; If all times that were, or shall be, are comprised under one instant of Eternity: what thing is man, who is but one point of that circumference? And what is his life. but one moment of that eternity? Shall then your Lordship complain that you are secluded Genoa, which (though of a good bigness) is but a little little point of a little point? and that you are secluded for a certain day? which is but a short instant of that time which cannot be termed (well) an instants?  
Your Lordship is sent out of your Country, not cashiered; by the Fathers and Senators of it, not by the Judges; and that to reward, not to banish-you: Malefactors are used to be banished 
l Nescis exilium scelerum esse poenam? Cic. Parad. ; so that banishment must lose its name where it finds innocence. A man is born with an obligation to serve his country, he is borne a slave; and the more slave, by how much his country is the more free: but to manumise a slave is a reward, not a punishment; it doth testify how well he hath merited by his service, when it makes him a freeman.  
Time hath been, That in Republics, banishment hath been (in a manner) their chiefest guerdon: it was often bestowed upon (F) the best deserving: if the Citizens be slaves, the Republics could not free any of them from their slavery, but they must fall (themselves) unto it: But when they found a subject of (G) great worth, beign a shamend to see him a slave, and not willing to make him a servant, they cashiered him; being content to see him a free man, though not to make him a (H) Master. He that said that he would be either an Exile our of his Country, or a Consul in it, 
Aut Consul aut Exul, Some read it.  did believe (perhaps) that a person of worth, could not contain himself in a Republic, if he did not obtain to be a Consul in it, or did not banish himself out of it. You have taken pains (Noble Sir) a long time, that others might take their rest: and you could not betake yourself to your rest, without losing all the glory that you have acquired by motion. He that hath performed brave exploits, and then retreats voluntarily, seems to have performed them out of heat and fury, not love; to have served his own ambition, not his country. It is not the part of a valiant man to take pains that he may take rest, as it is not the part of a stout man to fight that he may live: Even plebeian Spirits will rashly hazard their lives, that they may not lose it. To bestow upon thy Country the prime of thy youth, and to deny it the fruit of thy age, is to sacrifice the arms and deny the brains: Those that are weak of body are exempted from the wars, and they that are weak of understanding from the Senate: The danger of shortening our life by cumbering old age with businesses will not serve for an excuse, no more than the danger of blows will excuse a soldier from fight: He that (being young) did expose himself to danger by serving his Country by his arms, why should not he (being old) expose himself to the like danger, by the service & labour of his 
m Nullis annis vacationem damus canitiem galeâ premimus. Sen. de vitâ beatâ cap. 28.  brains? wherefore banishment (Noble Sir) is a great reward bestowed upon you: Quietness, which is ever desired by all, when it is the period of glorious motions or actions; and is not always laudable, when it is voluntary, cannot be reprehended in you, when it is become necessary. It is a great felicity (no doubt) to be now at leisure to recount with yourself the honourable memorials of former exploits, the applause you have received, and the honours you have deserved: This is like Gods own joy, to rejoice within ones self, and of himself: High and noble actions that have been performed, are dainties kept in store, and companions prepared for to solace and 
n Conscientia vitae benè actae multerumque benefactorum recordatio jucundissima est. Cic. Cast. Maj.  sweeten old age, and make retiredness a blessing.  
But what do I talk of banishment out of one's Country? it is true that your Lordship is exiled out of Genoa, but not form your Country: I must not contract the bounds of that; it hath not so small a circumference as Genoa: Every place pretends to be your Country, and every Country is ambitious to be that place: But it was the Country that you were borne in, you may say: if that place be your Country where you were borne, it is but a small plot of ground: if it be a City where this plot of ground is, why not rather the 
o My City and Country as I am Autoninus is Rome, as a man, the whole world. Anton, de vita sua l. 6 Civitatis nostrae terminos cum sole metimur. Sen. de vita beatâ, c. 31.  world which contains this City? You will say again that it is your Country because your Ancestors have there inhabited; if your Ancestors either had not been banished or had not banished themselves from their first habitation where they were born, Genoa had not now been your Country: wherefore banishment doth not make you lose your Country but gain it rather: It is your Country (you will say) because there lies your estate and your goods; alas! those you mean are not your (I) goods: you have found them, and you must again leave them: The goods of a man are his understanding, yea his Country is his understanding.  
That man is not banished, who being excluded one City, can live in any 
p Exilium illis terribile, quibus quasi circumscriptus est habitandi Locus; non iis qui omnem terrarum orbem unam urbē esse ducunt. Cic. parad  other climate of the habitable world: But he that cannot live in any other portion of the world, but in the circle of such a City: to expel the other out of such a City is not banishment but an enfranchisement: But how many men doth an ambition of greatness, and a desire of lucre detain there as Exiles, who never complain, and yet live in a harder condition than the other? you live under a good commonwealth, to which by nature you ought, and by choice you do render obedience. But those men do live under two Tyrants, Avarice 
q Libido honoris, imperii, provinciarum, quam dura est domina, quam imperiosa? Cic. parad.  and Ambition, which by nature they ought to command and not to obey. Your Lordship is transplanted from the Country of your Fathers into your Mother Country: For how can you be any other than the son of this City, if this City be the mother of studies and arts? surely you are her son, and a pregnant one too, the many births and conceptions of your brain do approve you so: send forth those that are not yet published, bring them (I pray) not to the light, but to be a light to the learned world, let them come abroad both to solace 
r Quid jucundius est Senectute stipatâ studiis juventutis? Cic. Cat. Ma.  yourself and others.  
Though wise men reside among the vulgar in this elementary world, yet they have another within them full of various images and noble Ideas, springing from the purer spirits of the heart, and inhabited by the noblest parts of the Intellect. It were a great unhappiness and disparagement to mankind, if those men should dwell in the same Commonwealth, that have not the same brains. Ignorance is a veil that hinders us to know this truth: he that should have the happiness to remove this veil, but for a moment, would be astonished to see a strange Metamorphosis, he should see a new heaven, and a new world: but since ignorance is dispelled but by degrees, that which is clear in itself, doth not presently appear so clear. From this Country your Lordship can never be banished, in this, you can endure no trouble.  
The Philosopher hath left it recorded, That stones do not make a City but bones, not walls but men: Pompey could say, that Rome 
s Me exulem putas cùm omnes meo discessu exulasse Remp. pudent? Cic. de seipso. Parad. 1 Veios' babitante Camillo illic Roma fuit.  went along with him when the better part of the Citizens went. Your Lordship hath carried away a great part of your Country with you, when you carried away yourself: I may say that you carried away all of it, not all the walls, but all the hearts therein: Who can say, that he is an exile that is so great a part of the admirable frame and building of his own Country? you are not gone to banishment, but have left your Country in banishment: because all those remain Exiles that have made you one. It cannot be believed that Caesar did chase Pompey from Rome, but rather that Pompey did chase Caesar out of it, if he carried with him the City, when he was exiled. The Inhabitants of seven celestial spheres, which convey their influence by motion and light into this nether world: which in the number of the second causes are the first, or certainly next to the first, are never fixed in their own Country, but are erratic, & itinerant: they have their proper houses (it it true) but where thy have their house, they have not their habitation; only Mercury the God of wisdom hath his 
t Terms of judiciary Astrology.  House, his exaltation & his triumph in one and the same sign: nevertheless he hath the greater force and efficacy in his unfortunate house, than in his own: To show that wisdom doth then show her virtues and power most, when she is most unfortunate.  
Let no man wonder that I make here a Panegyric of banishment, I am not a little obliged unto it, it hath created me your friend, servant, slave, it is enough that I have said Friend, since he is not a friend who is not a servant, yea a slave; though there be those that are servants and slaves, that be not friends: for there are some in this age that name themselves by no other style than slaves, who notwithstanding know no other friendship than that of profit and interest.  
I would farther expatiate in commendation of this your banishment from your Country, if (by being not allowed stay at this time in my own) I were not banished out of your Lordship's sight: otherwise I do so fare like and wish your banishment, that if I had your worth and innocence, (if this were not to wish my master guilty) I would wish myself banished. But since I live under a Prince, who crownes merit with reward, and never punisheth the innocent, since I cannot be an Exile, I would make myself one; and I do not know whether I do not make myself one at this present, or am not made so, but I am innocent, and therefore I do make myself: I should glory rather to be made one, because it would be a glory to be made like to your Lordship.  
When worthiness doth not advance a man higher, he gains the more favour, if it casts him lower, than if it moved him not at all: if he be not gracious with a man, or if he be out of his favour, there is no better way to make him gracious than to be 
u Quos injuriae invisos faciunt, gratioso, miseriae reddunt. Val. Max. lib. 5. c. 3.  disfavoured. men's tongues run in his commendations, and their hearts melt in compassion of him: great worth is not without reward, even in this world: for it is found sometimes among men, who always promise that it shall be rewarded: if those men do not reward it, who are the principle debtors, those men will that have any share in the benefit. Payments do cancel the obligation, but he that is not paid is still a creditor, and feels the debt still to grow, because the merit still increaseth: So that rewards are then most ample, when they are never received.  
There is nothing that man 
w 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Xenoph.  affects more than praise, and there is nothing hinders it more than envy, nor doth increase it more than pity: he that desires the one without the other, let him make himself deserving, and let him wish himself unfortunate: merit in distress doth produce the greater compassion, by how much in felicity it produceth the greater envy: we are moved with compassion, because we love the worth of him who is our inferior, and because we fear the like chance, by his example, who was our equal. 
x Ego Pompeii casum deploro & meam fortunam metuo: The words of Caesar when Pompey's head was brought unto him. Suet.   
Your Lordship hath with your resoluteness of mind amidst adversity, united two things, which were not wont to be at great odds and distance before, to wit Envy and Compassion; and hath brought misfortunes into credit, and hath rendered them even desirable, whilst in the midst of them, you have rendered your virtues even to envy glorious. It was the saying of 
y Si vis me flere, dolendum est primum ipsi tibi. Hor. de art poet.  a Poet, that he that would draw tears from others, must show his own: I know not whether he spoke well, because I know not whether affection moves the greater compassion: this I know, that behaviour moves a better: whatever circumstances are used to bewail the chance, are turned to the admiration of the person. Some Authors believe and teach (though perhaps amiss) that the carriage and courage of a man do take away compassion, because they take away the appearance and likelihood of misfortunes, as though men cannot believe a disaster, if they do not see tears; this appearance of fortitude (drawing all to the admiration of the person) makes the acerbity of the disaster to be forgotten: it doth not make it not to be truly believed, but not to be well considered: but admiration is not without delight, nor compassion without grief: weeping proceeding (most commonly) from a mixture of sorrow and delight, and behaviour uniting these passions together, will make us (perhaps) to thaw into many tears; whereas affection will rather make us to nauseate than to weep.  
The recompense of those troubles which your Lordship hath sustained for the Republic is to be troubled by it, but I believe that the Republic is troubled more for you than by you: a few men can never make a body, they can mar it, and often do: and I believe also that your noble Lordship is more troubled of the Republic than by it.  
(K) I have heard you speak so honourably and respectfully of that Senate which hath banished you, and so affectionately of your Country, that you would desire (in a manner) to be reputed culpable, that she might not be thought unjust: But noble Signior, he defends his Country, who defends his own innocence: It is easier to demonstrate that they have not once consented to banish your Lordship, than to go about to make men believe that they have been so often overseen in advancing you: as if their prudence did neither let them foresee and know the vices of his younger years, nor direct them how to curb those of his riper age: But had so often entrusted the helm of their vessel to the valour and prudence of a young man, who in the maturity of his age must be cashiered, as unworthy of those favours.  
Republics do often give way to calumny that they might not take away the trade of Informers: they had rather banish an innocent man, than suffer damage by not punishing a guilty man. I say not that the Commonwealth of Genoa is unjust, such thoughts are fare from me: I am not so uncivil nor so disrespectful. I honour it much: and I would be as good to serve it, as I am ready to respect it; and if I would not respect it for any other reason; I would for this, that it is your Lordship's Country: otherwise in lieu of obtaining your love and favour, I should purchase your hatred: I should not comfort you but exasperate you rather, since you that are innocent, will needs be innocent, only because you are condemned & judged to be so.  
It is no contradiction to be justly condemned and to be innocent: How many offenders are acquitted by justice without injustice? If that saying of Seneca be true, that thunderbolts are never more just than when they are adored by him that is thunderstruck; This most just Commonwealth was never more just than when it fulminated your banishment, who doth so much commend it, and with such expressions of honour discourseth of it. Thrice happy Commonwealth! were all the Citizens like you, she could never commit an error: banishment should never be thought unjust, nor the banished innocent: if at any time, she were not just, such men would make her so, when they affirm and teach that the will of their Fathers or Senators is their Law: In Tyrannical Governments the will holds the place of Justice; But in a Republic where Optimacy bears sway & rule, she may well enough stand with Justice.    

Another Letter in dispraise of Honours.  
BY the same marquis.  
I Have been at a long debate with myself, First, Whether I should write unto you; and then What I should write; to condole you had been dangerous; if grief had possessed your mind already, it would have increased its strength: if it had not, it would have given it a beginning: To comfort you raised these doubts within me: either there were reasons for so doing, and then it would have been supposed, that I had done it long sine; or there were no reasons, and then it would have been an undertaking as unnecessary in the one case, as fond and vain in the other: you have lost your dignities, nay you lost none, if your virtues adhere to you; and they do so, if you can despise & scorn that which sticks not to you: that circle of friends, that did compass you round and applaud you, were so many enemies; they rather besieged you and laid wait for you: The friends of Honours swarm to the place where they reside, because they affect those Honours: they hate those that do enjoy them, because they would enjoy them themselves: He that feels the weight of Honours, thinks them insupportable, and too heavy for him, and he that feels them not is insupportable to them: He that is not burdened with them is a burden to them: should a Courser that is decked with trappings of gold and purple, and carries a General in triumph to the Capitol, take a pride in the Arches, the shouts and acclamations of the people? or rather complain of his accoutrements, which are a burden rather than an ornament unto him; when gold as it is glorious, so it is ponderous too: Alas! there are few that talk with you, but with your fortune only: 
a Pauci Reges non regna colunt. Sen. Herc. Oct.  few that make obeisance to you, but to the dignities which you bear, and therefore no share remains to you, no more than to the steed, but the pains and the burden.  
If by the divine goodness and clemency, ambition were once quite exterminated or rooted up out of the hearts of men, it would be a greater difficulty (I doubt not) to persuade men to bear rule, than to obey: O unhappy and wretched command then, that is thus fooled by ambition, which makes men believe, that they command others when themselves are slaves both to it and others. He that commands, commands only for to 
b Magna servitus est magna fortuna: ex quo Caesar orbi terrarum dedicavit sibi eripuit. Sen. Consol. ad Polyb.  serve, and to serve those which stoop to him only that they may command him: Behold the shepherd, who is an emblem of him that governs people, and tell me whether the flock serves him or he the flock? To squeeze their milk, and their wool, doth not make him not to be a servant: it makes him not to be a free noble servant, but a mercenary one: if a man must seek out dainty viands for food, if he must be clothed with gold and purple, if armed with sword or firebrands, he hath no cause to complain of nature, that she hath left him (alone) among all creatures, as it were without clothes, or food, or arms: But if he would bear rule and dominion over men, he hath some cause to complain of her, because to him (alone) of all other creatures, hath she assigned dominion and sovereignty over all other creatures. Have you lost your dignities? you have not lost them but 
c Laudo manentem fortunam: si celeres quatit pennas resigno quae dedit. Horat odd.  surrendered them: they are the favours of Fortune, being seldom characters of merit, but of audacity: what other goodness have they in them, but what he stamps on them, that doth enjoy them? if he be not good, they are not dignities but indignities, you have not then lost your dignities, but they have lost him that gave them that denomination, and made them 
d Epaminondas honores ita gessit, ut ornamentum non accipere sed dare ipsi dignitati videretur. Just. 1. Hist.  dignities.  
(A) Some men are borne to command, and some to obey. Principality should be measured by the intellect, not by Cities and Provinces: He is not always a master of others, that hath others under him; it is Fortune that confounds the works of Nature: our Lord God hath stamped the Character of the worthiest man in the noblest and worthiest part of man: In a play the Actors habits and disguises may well deceive those spectators that are below, but not those that see them near hand. The wise man was upon the stage to behold the Comedy, when he said, 
e Prov. 10.7.  I see the master walk on foot, while the servants Ride on horseback. Our world here below is (for the most part) Antipodes or Counter to that of the Inteligences, there they argue the greatest dignity from the greatest measure of knowledge: and here he hath the greatest dignities (often) who hath the least portion of knowledge; when a man is borne in a higher degree or condition, and is inferior in brain, he is an error or oversight of nature, a monster: or if so be she had an intention to make him such, it was either to chastise, or to instruct, to show that all that are borne in this world are not borne for the world.  
Would you know what kind of things those dignities were which you enjoyed? consider what those are that do enjoy them: with how many would you change conditions, if you were to change persons withal? wherefore they are not good of themselves, since they do not 
f Quidquam nc Bonum est, quod non eum qui possidet, meliorem facit? Cic. parad. 1.  make men good: I have seen them more apt to corrupt goodness than to beget it: our nature is too frail to attain to perfection in goodness: it is rashness to seek an augmentation of virtue from temptation; for they do (oftentimes) change it, but always impaite it: To subdue our own affection is a difficult task: But to vanquish both our own and others too is almost impossible: what mind will bond its contentment with a little that enjoyeth much? what humility that meets with obsequiousness and homage, doth not turn to pride?  
Dignity is like a purple attire which doth embellish dirt because it hides the ugliness of it, but disgraceth gold, because it hides the splendour of it. Every thing is bright where the sun shineth: but a car buncle, if you will have it glitter and sparkle, place it in the dark: remove it out of another light, if you will see its own. Virtue desires to be naked, despoiled of dignities, and sequestered from wealth, it is a gem that shows all its worth, when it is all discovered, it cannot be so neatly enchased, but the beauty of that part will be concealed that is enchased.  
You are come down from the hill, not thrown down thence: and now since we are all upon the plain, and level, we will measure them together. The distance of the eye deceiveth it: in figures that are handsome, it perceives not all the beauty of them, and in those that are mishapen it discovers not all their defects: a little statue becomes not greater by being placed on a hill, nay statues being placed on high do lessen, or (at least) seem lesser to the eye of him that beholds them, though not to him, who taking the basis with the statue doth measure both t'other.  
Men are not therefore nearer heaven because they are advanced above us: he that mounts higher hath the more need to descend; the way to climb high is not to climb: you may see one exalted upon the throne above others, who is far below others; the thoughts of that man who seems to you to touch the Stars, are oftentimes as low as Hell: that body which you see is not the body of him you see, it is his carcase, 
g Scito t● mortalem non esse, sed corpus hoc: nec enim is es quem forma ista declarat; sed mens cujusque is est quisque. Cic. In somn. Scipionis.  there man is where his best part resides, or if he be not there, he shall go thither.  
Heaven is made for humble men, not for the great ones; he that is sometimes nearest unto it, sees it least; he that stands on the top of a mountain, sees nothing else but the sun, whereas he that is in the bottom of a well, can thence number the stars also. You may (perhaps) be aggrieved that your command is taken from you: Nature which hath planted in man that most 
h Cupido dominandi cunctis affectibus flagrantior. Tacit. 2. Hist  ardent desire of command, would have showed herself an envious mother, if she had not also given something to command. There is no man but hath (B) a kingdom within himself, and he is not worthy to be a king over others, that is not first a king over himself; rejoice that you are a commander over your own affections, to see your passions so good subjects. This Harmony brings you to hear that of the spheres, and to contemplate that of God himself, and in this most delightful Symmetry, you shall taste that peace and tranquillity of mind, which was by ancient sages reputed the felicity of the Blessed. If you may not come in place to right the oppressed, and do them justice, yet you may procure it to be done: if you have nothing left to relieve men withal, yet you have whereby to pity them, and that poverty which you cannot relieve, you can support and bear: In all places there is a place for the exercise of virtue, for one that would exercise virtue and not ambition, and there it appears greatest, where the least reward is expected by it.  
What avails it a man to be a commander over others, if he be 
i Si vis omnia tibi subjici, teipsum subjice rationi. Sen. Lib. 1. Ep. 36. Multos reges si ratio t● rexerit. Idem.  a slave of his own passions? what availeth it to dwell in palaces (to whose sumptuous frabricke even the remotest provinces of the world are tributaries) if in the mean while the soul inhabits a sordid nasty body? what harmony can recreate that man that is composed of nought but discord within himself? and what food can nourish him that labours with a thousand diseases, and is upon the rack of torments? Is not this body of clay enough to press down the soul, except we clog it also with the weight of Cities, and provinces and kingdoms? the greatness of dignities is a circumstance which doth always add weight unto our faults, but never to our services, and this is sometimes men's reward in the world, that have deserved well of it. It is very true that this transition from a place of eminent command, unto a private life is not easily 
k Infelicissimun infortunii genus est aliquando fuisse felicem. Boet. de consol. l. 2.  concocted, except only by those, who do not change their intellect by changing their condition; if a painter blot out a picture that was drawn in a table, and makes a new one in its place, that table is not the same though it be the same, because the table doth not give the name to the picture, but the picture to it: our understanding is a 
l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, velut tabula rasa. Arist. 3. de aima.  sheen tablet wherein no lines are drawn, the pictures and phantasms of great ones, which are imprinted in it, are not the same with those of private men, therefore the same man's intellect, is not the same when he becomes a private man: the change of a man's condition is the death of one man, and the generation of another; and a good death it is, if it be the generation of a good man. Troubles, my friend, are (when we err) the rewards of our errors, and when we do not err, an augmentaion of our merit, either they abate and expiate the ill, or augment the good: they are always good themselves, because he is always good that sends them; if they appear Evil, it is because he is evil that suffers under them.  
You are not unforuunate because you have lost your dignities; rather you are happy if you look not after them: he obtains enough who obtains this, even to desire nothing: those men are happy from whom Fortune cannot take away, not they on whom she may bestow: she is not unpleasing, but to him, who was too much pleased with her: she cannot take away but from him that was her Almsman: we call her unjust, when we ourselves are so. We complain of her for taking that which she had bestowed, in stead of giving her thanks that she had bestowed it: she doth not rob but reassume: our worldly felicities are but borrowed; when they are not restored back, they leave us of themselves: Death is aminister of 
m He means Fate or Providence.  Fortune, and see what arrears of debts are unpaid unto this, they will be exacted of that other.  
He that (in misfortunes) looseth not the string of virtue, is like an arrow which (when it looseth not the string of the bow) doth fly so much the more forward, by how much the more it was drawn backward: Fortune doth not retreat with an intention to forsake, but to prove us, and where it finds great spirits, there it returns with the greater equipage. He deserves not to entertain Fortune at her best, when he cannot bear her company at the worst: whilst we seek her unseasonably before the time, we often times meet our death, and whilst she returns to us at her own leisure, she doth often find us dead. He that hoiseth sails and displays them upon the saile-yards when the sea is rough and boisterous, either sinks the vessel or splits it: we must be content to keep below when our being higher may endanger our sinking. He that cannot obtain a calm, and yet by all means will needs sail in a tempest, doth not sail, but run a ground, and doth (many times) make himself unfit to entertain calm weather when it comes and smiles upon him, because it finds him either already splitt or drowned. Adversity hath not the power to disturb much, but such a 
n Quem res plus justo delectauêre secumdae, mutatae quatient. Horat. ep. l. 1.  mind as was enervated by prosperity. If the Stoikes had not confounded together the pains of the body with the passions of the mind, they had not (perhaps) fancied an (C) impassibility, when they fancied an indolency: for as in one case, it cannot consist with a sound mind; so in the other case it may be imputed (perhaps) to the greatness of wisdom: Disasters are light or 
o Ad opinionem dolemus: tam miser est quisque quam credit. Sen. Epist. 78. lib. 1.  heavy as we are pleased to make them; for they have no other being or existence than in opinion: if they were real things they would be alike in all. 
Nemo aliorum sensu miser est. Salvian. de provide. l. 1.   
Consider in your case how many men there be who have not those dignities which you possess, and yet do not complain. If you reply that they do not complain for not having them, because they have not had them; you complain (it seems) not for what you are, but for what you have been, and so you grieve for good, and not for evil; nay tell me also how many infirm men, how may beggars other sorts of people would deem themselves 
p Null ā tam miser ā nominabis domum quae non inveniat in miseriore solati●m. Sen. Cons. ad Marciam cap. 12.  happy, if they were in your condition? and do you call it an unhappiness to be that which so many men would account happiness to arrive at? if you be upon those terms (which I scarce believe) you are no way unhappy but that you understand not your own happiness.  
All estates and conditions of men in the world are 
q Mihi videtur rerum natura quod gravissimum fecit, commune fecisse: ut crudelitatem fati consolaretur aequalitas. Sen. Cons. ad Polyb. cap. 21.  equal, if a man will not change crosses with any other when he sees what comes to every man's lot and share: much less will he change felicities with any: for those also are equal if not in the scales of weight, yet (at least) in the balance of justice: and if (at any time) the freshness or novelty make a difference, it is the difference but of a few days; assuefaction will presenly produce it to a Geometrical equality. The felicities of this world are not in things themselves, they subsist in opinions only, and so become great or small, according as they are apprehended, and they have the greatest share of them, that believe they have it: Sovereignty is like a mountain which seems to the subjects (who are at the foot of it) with his towering head to touch the sky, but to those that are at the top, it seems with his basis to reach hell,  
There is no degree or condition of man but is subject to satiety: we ever desire what we do not possess; and our will (since it lives under those spheres, which are in perpetual motion) can never be at rest; private persons do envy the greatness of Princes, and Princes do envy the quiet repose of 
r Si non ess●m Alex and. Diogenes esse vellem. Plut. de Fortuna Alexand.  private persons: yet they will never descend or reduce themselves to this state of life; but rather still fear what they (sometimes) desire; As though they are ashamed to become such as they would seem to desire to have been at first. Be not therefore troubled that you are arrived at that state of life, which you have often envied in them that did enjoy it. There are some sort of maladies incident to men that the party must be well beaten before he can be cured. What things do men use to wish to souls departed, that they may be happy? not incessant motion I trow, but everlasting rest: behold you are this day invested in that bliss which you shall enjoy in eternity, if you can bear it well in this temporal life; Every man that hath his quietness is not at ease, but as that motion is best, the Author and cause whereof is ever quiet: so that quietness is worst, which hath within it an active principle that loves no rest.  
Rest you quietly my friend, under the cover of that harbour to the which that wind of Envy hath driven you, which thought to drown you: avoid the angry and unquiet Ocean, that sea which hath swallowed even (D) Palinures and expert Pilots, or when they could not break them with a storm, have lulled them fast asleep. You have already buried Envy under your ruins, and over them you may build Colossuses, or monuments of glory; you are not fallen, you have only laid yourself down, not by any fever or malady, but with a purpose to take your repose. Envy is left behind to wait upon those dignities which you enjoyed, which are no way good if they be envied: Envy is a worm which breeds only among corruption, it doth not fly at true worth and goodness, if it doth not find it wrapped in secular affairs which are attended with profit and glory.  
There is no other way of goodness than to be good in God's eyes, and he that is such is so secure from envy, that he oftentimes falls within the compass of compassion. Consider those who live like wild beasts among craggy rocks, and horrid woods, who being full of grace and celestial virtues, and being sequestered from men, do mix conversation with the Angels in the contemplation of their Creator: and then tell me, I pray you, whether any doth envy their condition? either they are pitied or commended. Moreover let us regard those virtues rather, which make a man good, than those which make a man great, so we should live safe from the envy of men, who measure goodness by greatness, and think him the better man who is the higher; leave friend these walls which hinder your prospect, and contract your Horizon, these walls which take away the prerogative which God gave unto man, to contemplate heaven without discomposing his head: what other thing doth those black habits import (which at first entrance do greet our eyes) than grief and sorrow, for the loss of liberty which unawares they are deprived of? To live in a great City, what is it but to live in a spacious prison where men are so wretched, and lost, that they know not their own natural necessities, except the senseless clock (which is in perpetual motion) put them in mind of them? as though all things here depended upon the wheel of Fortune or of the clock: Leave (I say) my friend these walls which can never so defend you, but they (at the same time) may oppress you with their fall. Come with me under the cool shades of Cedars and Beech: come where no other enchantment shall fill your ears than the chanting of the nightinggall, nor any other murmurs than that of the crystal brooks: where all favours and benefits are expected from the bounty of heaven, not of men; Here you shall see the Philomela innocently displaying her wings, and freely roving in the woods from tree to tree, and with the air of her wings, mingle the sweet air and warbling notes of her voice: not like the City birds which are constrained to make their voices mercenary, to beg their meat in tune, and earn it with a music lesson, so that I know not whether these prisoners (being also bewitched with these walls) do lament or sing the loss of their own liberty. Here the waters run under the harmless laurel with chaste and undefiled beauty, and (sometimes running gently out of their channels leaving pearly drops upon the golden flowers, and sweetly kissing the enameled herbs, do make them teemingly fertile with their amorous embraces: There (in the Cities) you may see them forced from their natural course, and deflowered, and (being conveyed through close prisons and channels) taught to aspire proudly towards heaven, to fall (afterwards) more violently to the earth. See how these matters do instruct us that in the Cities, men cannot (in their own natural state) be advanced, that have not first lost their native liberty; and that the end of their exaltation and mounting up is to 
s Tolluntur in altum, t●… casu graviore ruant. Claud.  fall with the greater precipitation.   

THe Learned Abbot Lancellotti in his work called L'Hoggi dis-inganno, makes it his aim and design to vindicate the present age from the vulgar error and imputation, that it is degenerated from the glory of ancient times, and that the world (Mandrabuli more) the older it grows, the worse it is. To encounter the torrent of popular Opinion herein, he demonstrates both by artificial and inartificial arguments, that present times are nothing inferior to those of our Forefathers, either in Virtue or Arts, Learning or Manners.  
For Learning, he produceth instances (of several kinds) to confront Antiquity, and to beard the Zanzummims or Giant-wits of former Ages. Among others, he musters this learned marquis, (the Author of these Letters) and places him in the front and among the Primipili of that Learned army of pen men, which he doth array and marshal in that work; He saith that the Ancients need not boast of their Tacitus or Seneca where Malvezzi is, for those two are contracted and blended into this one person, and he inherits the perfections of them both.  
It is most certain that our noble Author here, is a personage that deserves all these Commendations, except the obscurity of his stile chance to obscure his worth, and make him less valued, because less understood. Like the Cuttlefish, he hides himself too much in his own ink: his draughts or pictures have too much shadow, and his Tablets seem like so many night-pieces: He is another Heraclitus, so dark and obscure, that even his own Country men are thought wits when he is understood by them.  
I have therefore (upon better thoughts) considered that a pedantic & straight-laced translation was not sufficient for this piece, but that some passages (at least) required more light and larger Illustrations, which I have endeavoured to perform, and annexed them in the subsequent pages; which now present themselves to the Readers view and Candour.   


Some Passages illustrated in the first LETTER.  
GEnoa. §.] A Free State or Commonwealth in Italy; called by the French Genes: It is governed in chief by a Duke, whose office is annual, and whose authority (during his wardship) is regulated by eight Governors and so many Protectors, whose office extends to the space of two years, as Mons: Bodin informs me; These are all chosen by the Grand Council of four hundred which is termed the Signory. There is also besides these, a Senate which consists of a hundred select persons, who are chosen into that dignity by balls, as at Venice. So Bod. lib. 2. de Repub.  
There is a standing army belonging to this Republic, consisting of four thousand horse and foot, under the Command of some expert General. In which quality this noble Signior Vincent Imperiall was, as may be easily gathered from the Tenor of this Letter.  
section B Ostracism. §. This was a banishment used among the Athenians and Ephesians; which hath its name and denomination from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a shell: because the humorous Citizens did use to write their votes upon fish shells when they had a mind to banish any out of their society: And that was as often as any qualm of fear came over their stomaches; If they began to fear any man's wealth, or power, and favour with the people. 
In Alcibiade & Astide.  Hoc genus Exilii civibus potentiâ & gloriâ praestantioribus irrogatur, non malis ant obscuris hominibus, as Plutarch hath recorded. This banishment was for the space of ten years, and did not extend to confiscation of goods. Hereof Aristotle makes mention, Polit. lib. 3. cap. 9  
Of this nature was the Petalismus in Siracuse, practised by writing the name of the party to be banished upon an Olive-leafe, without expressing his crime, or a reason of his proscription; for it was frequently done without any reason.  
section C Stoical indolency. §. This is that Apathy, imperturbation, and constant tenor of mind that is imputed to the Stoics; as though they taught that a discreet wise man should be never affected either with other men's disasters or his own: But they that took their meaning so, mistook them. They teach (indeed) that a wise man is so good a Commander of himself and his own passions, that he is never transported by them, or (like Phaeton) hurried headlong: But his Reason doth still possess the throne and sceptre, and holds the golden reigns of Sovereignty in her hand; And doth exercise her jurisdiction, not by killing these Gibeonites, 
Josua. 6.21.  but by keeping them in obedience, and making them serviceable.  
A wise man is a man as well as other mortals: Seneca (who was germanissimus Stoicus, as Cicero calls him, 
Acad. qu. 1.  a true bred Stoic) did confess as much: 
Epist. 71.  non educo sapientem ex hominum numero, etc. And Antoninus surnamed the Philosopher, (who had imbided as much Stoicism as any other) did betray as much by the tears that the shed for this foster father: and when he seemed to some severe gravities to lament beyond decorum, his father Antoninus Pius, ingeniously excused him: permit illi ut homo sit, etc. permit him (saith he) to be a man: for neither Philosophy nor Empire takes away affections.  
Seneca also in his consolatory Epistle to Polybius 
Cap. 37.  is so fare from condemning him for his sorrowing, that he condemns those that did condemn him, and calls them durae magis quam fortis prudentiae Viros, rather hardhearted than valiant men.  
An unchangeable tenor and temper of affections is not only above the conditions of men but of the holy angels also: for they have an alternation of joys and sorrows; as they rejoice over penitent sinners, so they grieve and mourn for the fall of a holy man, or some bright star in the firmament of God's Church, below.  
section D There is no evil. §. Among the writings of the Stoics there are many singular strains which we usually call Paradoxes, and what Cicero 
Praefat: ad Paradoxa.  calls mirabilia Stoicorum the rare and wonderful Cabal of the Stoics, of which kind, divers are scattered by the Noble Author in the preceding letters, whereof this is one: That the evil of sin only, and not the evil of punishment; that which we do, not that which we suffer, deserves the name of evil. And this doctrine hath been delivered from an eloquent Father 
Chrysost.  from the pulpit, saying: 
Apud Sixtum Sen. 4 Bibl.  Maximum fieri ex tribulationibus lucrum; & supplicia mortalibus a Deo immissa, esse divinae pietatis beneficia: which is as much as to say, that our greatest foes are our best friends; that sufferings are blessings, and that we often gain by our losses. These may seem Riddles, but (upon serious deliberation) they are found sober truths: Poverty, exile, imprisonment, bodily infirmities, and the like (which most men account the chiefest of evils) are not evil indeed, but partake more of good than evil.  
subsection 1 Poverty is the harbour of peace and security: where undisturbed sleeps and undissembled joys do dwell, fideliùs rident tuguria; some rich men have abandoned their wealth, and some great ones have degraded themselves of their greatness for to enjoy the blessings that attend the low estate of the poor: low shrubs are not annoyed with thunder-strokes; and Envy, Cares and turmoils do not haunt the Cell. If a man can match his mind to his means, and level his desires with his fortune and make them commensurate, he may dispute happiness with the Gods, saith that brave Roman, Seneca. 
Epist. 23.   
subsection 2 For imprisonment, if it be not just, there is no evil in it, no disgrace at all, since Socrates was prisoner at Athens: and since Photion and Miltiades (the ornaments of their Country) died in a prison; The very presence of their persons did purge away the infamy of that place, and made it sacred, and far more honourable than the Court where their Judges sat. 
〈…〉. I  A goal was made for malefactors, but if innocent and good men be thrown therein, it must lose that appellation, and be rather any thing else than a goal: as it is true, that Causa non poena facit martyrem: so it is as true that causa non poena facit carcerem.  
subsection 3 Banishment: none need to fear it or startle at it: it hath been the lot and fortune of the most virtuous and deserving men that ever lived amongst men: they that have often preserved their Country from ruin have been (by their Country men) driven out of it: This was the reward of M. Cicero, Qui conservatae patriae pretium calamitate exilii tulit, as V Paterculus speaks of him. 
L. 2. Hist.  And thus have many other worthy Patriots been rewarded, as will be showed in another Paragraph. If such noble examples will not serve to reconcile us to a good opinion of banishment, sure this former Letter of Malvezzi will, which is a persuasive Apology for the same, & is fraught with learned arguments to that effect.  
subsection 4 Lastly, for bodily infirmities: they have wrought much good, by fitting some men for good arts and studies, and others for heaven, by a pious and holy life. 
Thucid. l. 1. Histor.  Plato did set up his Academy in an unhealthful air, in Attica; which was as barren for corn, as it was fertile in good wits and Arts: for an Athletic habit of body is not so useful for the mind; the strength of the one is perfected in the weakness of the other. Imbecillitas carnis (saith Salvian 
In Epist. ad Caturun. ) mentis vigorem exacuit, & affectis artubus, vires corporum in virtutes transformantur animorum & multis sanitatis genus quoddam esse videatur, hominem interdum non esse sanum; this is very full and home to our business. Eudoxius a famous orator in S. Basils' time, and who had been converted to the Christian faith by that holy Father, lay long under a languishing sickness, but he was so fare from murmuring and discontent under it, that he made an excellent Grace or thanksgiving to God for the same, Gratias ago (saith he) tibi pater O. Conditor hominum tuorum, qùod nos (etiam invitos) rectè fingis; & per externum hominem, internum purgas; & per adversa ad beatum nos finem producis. Basil. Epist. 117.  
section E Fortune. §. If by this name and appellation of Fortune (so frequently mentioned in these Letters, and in the writings of Ethnics under the notion of a Deity) is meant the supreme moderator of the Universe (who is capable of all names, as Seneca tells us) it may pass current: 
Cui nomen omne convenit. lib. 2. Natur. quaest. c. 45.  otherwise Fortune is but filia vulgi (as one saith) a child of popular Fancy, an Idol or figment of man's brain. For when the Philosophers were ignorant of the true causes of some effects and events, they devized these terms of Fortune and Chance to salve the Phaenomena of their doctrine, and their credit from the suspicion of Ignorance. For (indeed) there is nothing that falls out in this universe without a Providence, and a true and proper cause, which is linked unto the first: from which it hath its first motion and impulse, and to which it hath it last resort: though all men cannot see the dependency and Concatenation of the same. Some of the ways of Providence are full of Meanders and Labirynths past finding out, proceeding in such a cryptical and involved method that humane wit cannot trace them. And therefore Fortune (like Occult Qualities in philosophy) is the Sanctuary of Ignorance: Propter ignorationem verarum causarum aut obscuritatem Fortuna appellatur, ejusque vocabulo utuntur philosophi: So the Orator ingeniously confessth in the second of his Acad: Questions. 
Cic.   
section F Bestowed upon the best deserving. §. The Romans rewarded Rutilius and Camillus with banishment, and many other Worthies, to whom Rome did owe not a little of her greatness and glory: so they dealt with the African Scipio who was Carthaginis horro, & cui Roma debet quòd semel tantùm capta est, as Seneca expresseth him: 
Epist. 91.  who was the terror of Carthage, and who rescued Rome from a second Rape, that Annibal had not his will and pleasure upon her, as the Gauls once had. Cicero and Seneca (two men that were the honour of the Gown) received the like kindness, the former having by his great care and activity preserved Rome from the fury of Catiline and his Complices: and the latter having been not only the Emperor Nero's Tutor, but was also (for his personal worth) Romani nominis magnus sol, as Lipsius styles him. 
In his Notes on Tacitus.  The Athenians cashiered not only their Miltiades and Themistocles, who had often preserved their lives and fortunes, but also their Photion and Aristides, which are not so much names of men, as of Virtue and Goodness. 
Beneficia co usque Laeta sunt, dum videntur posse ex●…olv Tac. 4. An.  Some of these were proscribed, because their deserts were above requital: and some others, not because they had done any harm, but for fear they should do any, in regard of their power and greatness. Eminent men are always suspected by the higher powers, whthere one or more sit at the stern: for the same faults and Enormities are incident to popular states, as are to Monarchies. 
Tacit.  Non minus periculum ex magna fama quám ex mala: and 
Sen. Thy.  multis exitio fuit íncautus populi favour, are true maxims in both states: Great merit and a high fame, are like a high wind and a large sail which do often sink the vessel. And Machiavelli in his discourses puts it to the question, Whether the Prince or the people use to be more ungrateful toward their deserving Ministers: and he concludes them equally guilty.  
section G Of great worth. §. neither Comparatives nor superlatives are allowed in the Grammar rules of Democracie: A man may be good here, but not better than his fellows, nor richer nor wiser, nor any way better qualified; we are all Peers here, nemo de nobis unquam excellat, si quis extiterit, alio loco, & apud alios sit: so the levelling Ephesians decreed, when they turned out Hermodurus. 
Arist. 3. Pol. c. 13. Cic. lib. 1. Tusc. qu.  And this is the practice of the Venetian state at this present as Jovius tells us: 
Lib. 1. de Ven. Repub.  neminem temerè ex Optimatibus, qui vel insigni virtute vel spiritu in gerendis rebus antecellat, nimio plus crescere, vel collecta gratiâ potentem & clarum esse patiuntur. In these popular states no man may be popular, it a minion of the people: multis exitio fuit, etc. the unwary and undissembled love of the multitude hath been often fatal to their Favourite, and hath cost him his life or his liberty, as it did Petro Loredano a Senator of Venice, 
Mach: Discur.  who because he had more discretion than his fellows, and so much authority as to becalm a tempest by land, I mean a great commotion and tumult raised by the Seamen, which threatened much danger to the City, was soon after this good service clapped up in prison by the Senate, par ragion di stato.  
It is a fundamental rule and maxim of state in these kinds of Governments to suffer no man to grow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle expresseth it, 
5. Polit. cap. 8.  ultrà commensurationem, beyond his line and tedder: every man here hath his bounds which he may not pass, and his maximum quoad sic (for wealth and dignity) beyond which dimensions and pitch he may not grow. The temper of these bodies politic are stated ad temperamentum, ad pondus aequale, & stinted to an aequiponderation by the project and design of the first Founder: no element may predominate here; this brings all to disorder and distemper.  
But how agreeable this is to nature's laws, and whether this be not a dwarfing of a State and a damping of men's Spirits and industries I leave to others to determine.  
He that said. §. 
Plut. 
Suet.   This was Jul. Caesar, who when he stood in competition with Q. Catulus for the Pontificate, and his mother dissuaded him from it, told her that ere night he would be either the greatest man in Rome, or be banished out of it; he would be first, or none at all. So another time passing by a little town in Savoy, he told the company that was with him, that he had rather be the chiefest man in that Town, than the second man in Rome. Of this spirit was Caesar Borgia, as his motto discovered: Aut Caesar, aut Nihil. The spirits of some men (by some natural Elevation) are made for Rule; they are too high for the low roofs they were borne in, and therefore cannot live in the sphere of privacy and subjection. As Jul. Caesar could brook no superior: so Pompey could bear no Peer, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Dion speaks of him, being very ambitious of Rule and pre-eminence, and of grasping all power in his own hands. 
Plut. in vit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Arist. Pol. 3. cap. 3.  Themistocles was wont to speak openly, that he was borne for empire and command; and Jason Pheraeus would say that he could not live a Fool, that is, a private man; and that he was hungry till he did bear rule, as Aristotle hath recorded of him.  
These men did sweat (in a manner) within the narrow bounds that their fathers had left them, as Alexander did, within the compass of the known world. 
Juv. Sat. 10.  Aestuat infaelix angusto limit mundi. They were straitened and uneasy, and therefore made way with their swords for more room to breathe in.  
section I Are not your goods. § This is another Inopinatum, or nice point of the Stoics mirabilia; That the moveables of Fortune are not to be reckoned any part of our wealth, or among the number of our goods or good things: for the true goods of a man are (say they)  and immutable; nec eripi nec surripi possunt, can neither be plundered nor sequestered; a man's true wealth is always embarked in the same bottom with himself: for extrinsecall and adventitious goods, non simpliciter bona nuncupanda, saith Apuleius, are not simply good: sed falsa & adulterina bona, as Seneca styles them, 
Epist. 71.  things that have the gloss and lustre of good (as counterfeit gems of true ones) but are not so indeed. 
Helvid. apud Tac. 4 Hist.  Quae extra animum sunt, neque bonis neque malis annumeranda, saith another Scholar of the Stoa: they are neither good nor bad absolutely in themselves, but relatively, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, according as they are used and employed; bona undè benè facias, non quae bonos faciunt, instruments to do good, not to make men good: for what is incident to bad men and never makes them better, and separable from good men and never leaves them worse, doth not deserve the name of good. 
Cic. parad. 1  Quidquamne bonum est, quod non eum qui possidet meliorem facit.  
section K I heard you speak. § This noble Gentleman bore his banishment with that temper and aequanimity, as Scipio did his; who upon his departure from the City spoke in this gentle strain: 
Sen. Epist. 86.  Vtere sine me beneficio meo, patria: causa tuae libertatis fui, ero & argumentum; exeo, si plus quam tibi expedit crevi. And that good man Aristides being sentenced to banishment, said no more but this: I wish my Country no more harm than that they may never have any more need of Aristides. Rutilius also took his banishment so contentedly, ut sorti suae gratias egit, & exilium complexus est, as Seneca tells us. 
Epist. 86.  And Seneca himself in his consolatory Epistle to his mother Helvia, touching his own banishment, doth not complain (one word) either of his banishers or banishment, but seems as well contented with Corsica as with Rome.  
These brave men, by this moderation and Composedness of mind, did rear them Trophies out of their misfortunes, 
Consol. ad Helviam. cap. 13.  & miserias Infularum laco babuere, wore their disasters like holy vestmments and robes of honour, as Seneca sets them out. They shown that they could not only do, but suffer bravely: 
Et facere & pati fortia, hoc Romanum est. L. Flo.  and that passive fortitude is as glorious as active valour. These men that (carried so much intrinsique worth) thought they could live as well without their native Country, as their Country without them, as Diogenes said of his servant that ran away: 
Laert. in ●…ita.  if my man (saith he) can live without me, it were a shame if I could not live without my man.   

The second Letter.  
section A Born to Command. § It is nature that makes servants and masters saith Aristotle, 
1 Polit. c. 1.  she imprints a character of servitude or command on every rational creature; which impression is either outward or inward, in the body, or mind, or both: when she designs men for rule she gives them (commonly) more decent limbs and feature, & formam dignam imperio. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Eurip.  A handsome face in time of election is a letter of commendation, whose silent Rhetoric prevails much with the people, and gains their voices without canvasing, or any other arguments to persuade. Omnibus Barbaris in majestate corporis veneratio est, qui magnorum operum non alios magis capaces putant quam quos eximiâ specie natura dignata est, saith that elegant Historian Q. Curt. 
L. 1. Hist.  And therefore mosto nations were wont to choose their Rulers (as the Jsraelites did Saul) by the eye. So the Indians and Aethiopains' did in Aristotle's time: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 7. Polit. cap. 14.  grounding their choice (perhaps) upon this account: that such fair mansions should have (and usually had) Inhabiters and Guests suitable to their dwelling: Fair souls should possess fair bodies.  
But if it falls out so (as many times it doth) that ingenium malè habitat, as Suetonius speaks of Galba, a fair soul is lodged meanly and unsuitably; or on the contrary, than it is Nature's intent (since Reason and understanding are of the greatest use and moment in humane affairs, and matters of Government) that those that had the greatest share of these (by Nature's bounty) should bear rule over them that had less, and were minors in understanding: The fool shall be a servant to the wise of heart, saith the wise Solomon. 
Prov. 11.29.  This was Diogenes his meaning, 
Laert.  who when he was taken captive by pirates, and was to be sold in the marketplace, seeing a Gallant pass by, whom he conceived to have more wealth than wit, spoke to the Pirates, Sirs, sell me (I pray) to yonder Gentleman, for I believe he wants a master: he did not mean to be his servant (belike) but his master.  
section B Butler hath a kingdom. §. This position flowed from Zeno's school too, and the Sophies of the Stoa (quorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whose words sound like wonders and eracles) That every wise man is not only a freeman but a free-prince, a King: This doctrine hath passed current through many hands and pens. Qui recte faciet, non qui dominatur, erit Rex, saith Ausonius in his monosyllables; He that doth well is a King, though he be not a King: and Rex est qui posuit metus, etc. Saith Seneca, 
In Thyestes.  he that hath subdued his fears and perturbations, deserves the Crown; Regnum & diadema deferes, etc. 
Lib. 2. Carm. ode 2.  Reach him the Crown and Sceptre saith Horace, and let him reign, in whom no base covetousness reigns. But this kingdom (we speak of) is an invisible one, seated in the mind of man: mens bona regnum possidet: every body natural is a body politic, or a little commonwealth, where Reason commands in chief, and the Passions (like dutiful subjects) obey her check and commands: And though the territories of this little Republic seem but small and narrow, being bounded within the circuit of man's breast, yet the command and Royalty is great; imperare sibi maximum est imperium saith Seneca, 
Epist. 113.  he that can command himself may command fare and wide, yea farther than He that wears the Moon for his crest, 
Turk.  or the other that wears the Sun for his helmet: 
King of Spain.  Latius regnes avidum domando spiritum, quam si Lybiā remotis Gadibus jungas, & uterque Poenus serviat uni. As the Lyric poet hath divinely sung. 
Car. lib. 2. odd 2.   
This doctrine is quadrate to that saying in the holy scripture, 
Revel. 1.6.  That Christ hath made us Kings and Priests unto God his Father: which being understood in a moral and not a literal sense, (as some fanatic spirits would understand them, who would be all Kings and Priests) doth aptly concur with this maxim of the Stoics: As I have observed a great harmony and conformity in many points both of doctrine and discipline, between the Christians and the Stoics; and if Aristotle was Christ's praecursor in naturalibus as the Divines of Collen affirmed, I may as boldly affirm and demonstrate it too, that Zeno and his successors were his praecursors in moralibus; whose teaching did enlighten much the darkness of those times and dispel their ignorance; creating a glimmering light, like the dawn before the sunrising, and preparing the way for the Light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world: though Saint John (that bright Phosphorus) did it in a higher degree & measure, yet these had a share in it, and seasoned their minds with previous dispositions to receive the lively Oracles of Christ & his Preachers.  
section C Fancied an impossibility. §. This is another placitum or heresy of the same school: that as no outward misfortunes can make any wound or bruise in the mind of a wise man: so neither can bodily pains make him miserable, or bereave him of inward joy and felicity: si uratur sapiens, si crucietur in Phalaridis tauro, dicet, quam suave est hoc? Cic. 2. Tusc. qu. the inward peace and contentment of mind, which he enjoys, doth stupefy the sharpest torments, and rebate the edge and sense of them. Invictus ex alto dolores suor spectat, as our Seneca tells us, 
Epist. 85.  he looks with an undaunted spirit upon his own torments and torments, as though he were a spectator and not a spectacle; & as though his body did not belong unto him, or that were not his own that he carried about him. Tuned Anaxarchi follem, etc. so Anaxarchus jeered him that belabourd himself in tormenting his body.  
Though our noble Author seems not to approve of this Paradox, concluding it under an impossibility, yet the great Saint Basil, doth not stick to commend it: Laudo animi dexteritatem (saith he 
Epist. 180. ) & praestantiam in Stoicis, qui nihil corum quae extra hominem sunt à felicitate impedire dicunt: sed felicem eum esse qui virtutis studio incumbit, licet in Phalaridis tauro cremetur. And the ready willingness of the primitive Christians to be Martyrs, and their wonderful constancy and cheerfulness under those witty and exquisite torments that were inflicted on them, may acquit this doctrine of the Stoics both from arrogancy, and from a seeming impossibility.  
section D Palinures. §. Palinurus was shipmaster or Pilot to Aeneas in his Navigations from Troy to Italy: who (one night) while he was viewing the stars and the sky from the deck of a ship, was by a strong gust of wind thrown overboard, and 
— Dum sydera servat,  
Exciderat puppi mediis effusus in undis.  Vir. Aen. 6.  
These Palinures in the Text are some prudent and experienced Statesmen and Pilots, that have sat at the sternes of commonwealths; whom the breath of the people (who are as inconstant as the wind) hath in some paroxysm and acute fit of anger or jealousy, which they are frequently subject unto, many times cast overboard, even such as have steered and guided them safe in all their courses through many Civil tempests; and whom they (once) esteemed their Dioscuri and Tutelar gods; so fickle and uncertain a tenure, is the love of the vulgus— neutrum modò, mas modò vulgus. There is no Euripus so lunatic and unquiet, and so full of reciprocations and countertydes; or so suddenly changed from a calm to a tempest as the populace; Nullum fretum tam procellosum, & tantos ciet fluctus quantos multitudo motus habet saith Quint. Curtius, lib 10.  
The people is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch characters them, 
De Repub. gerenda  a suspicious, humoursome and Skittish beast, that is often restif, and doth cast off his rider: and a man may as soon shape a coat for the changeable Moon, as make any Government or Governors to please them long.   
FINIS.