"ing lazy and delicate people; nor by a death that
was languishing, and painful; and that they had
"thought him worthy to die after that noble man-
"ner, in the career of his victories, and in the
"height of his glory." He had a vision like that
of Marcus Brutus, that first threatened him in Gaul,*
and afterwards appeared to him in Persia, just be-
fore his death. These words, that some make him
say,
when he felt himself wounded, "Thou hast
overcome, Nazarene ;" or, as others, "Content
"thyself, Nazarene," would hardly have been
omitted, had they been believed by my witnesses,
who, being present in the army, have set down even
the least motions and words of his latter end, no
more than certain other strange things that are re
corded of him.

66

blish Paga

to destroy

keeping up

To return to my subject," He long nourished," He aimed says Marcellinus, "Paganism in his heart; but, all to re-esta"his army being Christians, he durst not own it :§ nism, and "but, in the end, seeing himself strong enough to the Chris"dare to discover himself, he caused the temples tians, by "of the gods to be thrown open, and did his ut- their divi"most to set on foot an idolatry. The better to sions by a general to "effect this, having at Constantinople, found the feration. "people disunited, and also the prelates of the "church divided amongst themselves, and having "convened them all before him, he gravely and "earnestly admonished them to calm those civil "dissentions; and that every one might freely, and "without fear, follow his own religion: this he did "the more sedulously solicit, in hopes that this li66 cence would augment the schisms and faction of "their division, and hinder the people from réunit

66

ing, and consequently fortifying themselves "against him by their unanimous intelligence and "concord; having experienced, by the cruelty of

* Ammian. Marcell. lib. xx. cap. 5. + Idem, lib. xxv. cap. 2. Vicisti, Galilæe. Theodoret. Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. 20. Idem, lib. xxi. cap. 2. Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxii. cap. 3

cy, with

"some Christians, that there is no beast in the "world so much to be feared by man, as man." Reflections These are very near his words, wherein this is on this poli-worthy of consideration, that the emperor Julian gard to the made use of the same receipt of liberty of conliberty of conscience science, to inflame the civil dissensions, that our granted, in kings have now done to extinguish them: so that it taigne's may be said, on one side, "That to give the peotime, to the c ple the reins to entertain every man his own opiProtest- "nion is to scatter and sow division, and, as it

Mon

ants.

"were, to lend a hand to augment it, there being "no barrier nor correction of law to stop and hin"der its career;" but, on the other side, a man may also say, "That to give people the reins to en"tertain every man his own opinion, is to mollify "and appease them by facility and toleration, and "dulls the point which is whetted and made sharper "by singularity, novelty, and difficulty.". And, I think, it is more for the honour of the devotion of our kings, that, not having been able to do what they would, they have made a show of being willing to do what they could.

conve

CHAPTER XI.

That we taste nothing Pure.

There is no SO weak is our condition, that things cannot fall niency into our use in their natural simplicity and purity; without its the elements that we enjoy are changed, even me

incouve

nience.

tals themselves; and gold must be debased, by some alloy, to fit it for our service. Neither has virtue, so simple as that which Aristo, Pyrrho, and also the Stoics have made the principal end of life: nor the Cyrenaic and Aristippic pleasure been useful to it without a mixture. Of the pleasure and goods that

we enjoy, there is not one exempt from some mixture of evil and inconvenience:

Medio de fonte leporum,

Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipsis floribus angat.*
Something that's bitter will arise,
Even amidst our jollities.

Our greatest pleasure has some air of groaning and
complaining in it; would you not say, that it is dy-
ing of anguish? Nay, when we forge the image of
it, in its excellency, we paint it with sickly and
painful epithets, languor, softness, feebleness, faint-
ness, morbidezza, a great testimony of their con-
sanguinity and consubstantiality. Excessive joy has
more of severity than gaiety in it; the fullest con-
tentment, more of the sedate than of the merry.
Ipsa felicitas, se nisi temperat, premit : " Even fe-
licity, unless it moderates itself, oppresseth." Plea-
sure preys upon us, according to the old Greek
verse, which says, "That the gods sell us all the
"good they give us ;" that is to say, that they give
us nothing pure and perfect, and which we do not
purchase but at the price of some evil.

66

pleasure

appears

Labour and pleasure, very unlike in nature, asso- Pain and ciate, nevertheless, by I know not what natural con- joined at junction. Socrates says, "That some god tried to one end, mix in one mass, and to confound pain and plea- from mesure, but not being able to do it, he bethought lancholy. "him at least to couple them by the tail."|| Metrodorus said, "That in sorrow there is some mix"ture of pleasure."§ I know not whether he intended any thing else by that saying; but, for my part, I am of opinion, that there is design, consent,

Constant

and universal plea

be borne

by man.

and complacency in giving a man's self up to melancholy; I say, that, besides ambition, which may also have a stroke in the business, there is some shadow of delight and delicacy, which smiles upon, and flatters us, even in the very lap of melancholy. Are there not some complexions that feed upon it?

Est quædam flere voluptas.*

A certain kind of pleasure 'tis to weep.

And one Attalus, in Seneca, says,

"That the me

mory of our deceased friends is as graceful to us as the bitterness in the wine, very old, is to the palate,t

Minister vetulis puer Falerni

Ingere mi calices amariores.

Thou boy that fill'st the old Falernian wine,
The bitt'rest pour into the bowl that's mine..

"and as apples that have a sweet tartness." Nature
discovers this confusion to us. Painters hold,
"That the same motions and screwings of the face
"that serve for weeping, serve for laughter too;"
and indeed, before the one or the other be finished,
do but observe the painters' conduct, and you will
be in doubt to which of the two the design does
tend; and the extremity of laughter is mixed with
tears: Nullum sine auctoramento malum est : "No
"evil is without its compensation."

When I imagine man surrounded with all the conveniences that are to be desired, let us put the case, sure not to that all his members were always seized with a pleasure like that of generation in its most excessive height; I fancy him melting under the weight of his delight, and see him utterly unable to support so pure, so continual, and so universal a pleasure; indeed he is running away whilst he is there, and na

*Ovid. Trist. el. 3, ver. 37.
Catul. epist. 25, ver. 1, 2,

+ Senec. epist. 63.
Senec. epist. 69.

turally makes haste to escape, as from a place where he cannot stand firm, and where he is afraid of sinking.

confound

When I religiously confess myself, I find that the Moral good best good quality I have has in it some tincture of and evil vice; and am afraid that Plato, in his purest virtue ed in man, (I, who am as sincere and perfect a lover of him, and of the virtues of that stamp, as any other whatever), if he laid his ear close to himself (and he did so), he would have heard some jarring sound of hu man mixture, but so obscure as only to be perceived by himself; man is wholly and throughout but a patched and motley composition.

Even the laws of justice themselves cannot sub- The justest sist without some mixture of injustice; insomuch laws have that Plato says, "They undertake to cut off the ture of in

some mix

Hydra's head, who pretend to purge the laws of justice. ❝ all inconvenience." Omne magnum exemplum habet aliquid ex iniquo, quod contra singulos utilitate publica rependitur: " Every great example of justice has in it some mixture of injustice, which re"compenses the wrong done to particular men, by its public utility," says Tacitus.

under

per for af.

most re

It is likewise true, that for the business of life, Common and the service of public commerce, there may be stauding some excesses in the purity and perspicacity of our more promind; that penetrating light has too much of sub- -fairs than tlety and curiosity; it must be a little stupified and what is blunted, to be rendered more obedient to example fined. and practice; and a little veiled and obscured, to bear the better proportion to this dark and terrestrial life; and yet common and less speculative souls are found to be more proper, and more successful in the management of affairs; and the elevated and exquisite opinions of philosophy are unfit for business; this acute vivacity of the mind, and the supple and restless volubility of it, disturb our

* Tacit. Annal. lib. xiv,