Justus Lipsius

“ These things you may fear but not prevent: Fly, but not be able to evade. Arme your self therefore against them, and catch up this fatal weapon, which will not only pierce, but kill; not only diminish, but destroy all your Griefs. As if you slightly touch a Nettle it stings; but if hard, it hath no such power: So doth the asperity of your Grief encrease upon you if you ply it with gentle remedies, but gives back in the use of those which are more forcible and severe. Now there is nothing more forcible than necessity: whose first onset doth rout and conquer these feeble troops. ”

“ After I had spoken many things with equal Freedom and Truth, concerning the troubles of Belgia: I told him at last, that howsoever I had pretended another; yet this was the very Reason of my departure. For who, O Langius said I, is there to be found of so flinty and hard a heart; as longer to endure these evils? We are toss'd as you see, for so many Years together in the stormes of a Civil War: and are whirl'd up and down in a Tempestuous Sea with the different Winds of Trouble and Sedition. Doth my temper incline me to ease and quiet? ”

“ Do you see those languishing and retir'd Bodies, whom the Sun seldom looks upon, the wind never assails, and the more piercing air never lights upon; the Minds of those soft and ever happy Men, are such as the least gust of an angry Fortune will overturn and dissolve. Afflictions then do strengthen us, and as trees fasten their roots the deeper by how much the more they are shaken with the Winds; so good Men become the more fixed in vertue, when attempted by the storms of adversity. Afflictions do also prove and try us ”

“ Suppose that some god should promise you, that during this war, your fields should be untouch'd; your house and mony safe, and your self set on some mountains top, folded in one of Homers clouds: would you grieve still? I will not say it of you, but there are a sort of men, that would even rejoice, and greedily feed their eyes with the confused slaughter of dying men. What do you deny this, or seem to wonder at it? I tell you there is a kind of inbred malice in the disposition of mankind; which as the old Poet speakes
Joyes at another mans calamities. ”

“ Langius replyes; Young Man; Look then upon these things not as above, but beneath you; and labour to establish Constancy in your Mind, by reflecting upon the inconstant and unsteady levity of all things. Inconstant (I say) as to our sense and apprehension of them: but if we respect God and his Providence, than all things succeed in an admirable and immoveable order. For now laying swords aside, I come to my Ensignes, and shall assault that Grief of yours, not with Arrowes, but more formidable inventions. I shall inforce against it the Ramme of Fate, an Ensigne of that strength and firmness ”

“ And in those for the most part are those divine pieces compos'd, which are the wonder of Mankind, and which no Age, or successions of time shall ever abolish. To this green Lycæum do we stand indebted for so many Lectures upon Nature: To this shady Academy we owe those discourses about manners, and from the apartments of these Gardens are those abundant springs of Wisdom diffus'd, which we drink of, and which with their fertill inundations have enrich'd the World. ”

“ I know also your posterity will have the same complaint. Nature has riveted this into the Disposition of Man; to look fixedly upon his Evils; and to shut his Eyes upon his mercies. As Flyes and other Insects, do not rest long upon smooth and polished places, but stick to those that are rough and soiled: So this querulous Mind of ours, lightly overpasses our better fortunes: But will not be withdrawn from its contemplations of that which is worse. It handles and pryes into its evils, and for the most part shews it self witty, in the aggravating comments that it maks upon them. ”

“ Ruine Judea and the Jews: Take, and raze the whole City; but for what end? As you indeed intend it; for the glory and enlargement of the Empire, but you mistake your selves, you are only the Lictours and Executioners of the divine vengeance upon an impious Nation. Go ye who possibly have martyr'd the Christians at Rome, and revenge the Death of Christ in Iudæa. All ages are full of such examples, how God by the sinful desires of some Men hath accomplished his own good pleasure; and by the injustice of others, hath executed his own just and righteous Judgments. ”

“ Wisdom is not acquir'd by wishes, but endeavours. The discourse of Constancy renew'd. The desire of knowledge, a happy presage in a Young Man. This admonition so inflam'd me, that not able to dissemble it; My Father said I, with my Mind I follow you already; but when shall I with my Actions also? When shall that day appear, which releasing me from these cares, shall place me in the path of true wisdom; that thereby I may attain to true Constancy? Langius as one reproving me. Do you then (said he) choose rather to wish, than to act? It is to no purpose at all ”

“ But the associate of Reason is Constancy; to the putting on of which I do very seriously exhort you. To what purpose is it to have recourse unto things vain and external? This is that only Helena which can present you with that true and rich Nepenthe, in which you may drown the memory of all your Cares and Griefs; which if once you have tasted and taken down; proof against every chance, in the same equal tenour, and not wavering after the manner of a ballance; you may challenge to your self that great and God-like property of Immoveable. ”

“ If you change your affection; you change your Country. A wise Man wheresoever he is, is but a sojourner; a Fool is ever banished. But I daily expect Death from the Tyrant: As if you did not do the same from Nature. ”

“ That you move is from God; from your self, and in your self, that you move to Evil. Finally, that I may at last finish my discourse about this Liberty; Fate is as it were the Leader of the Dance, in this Masque of the world: But so, that we also have our parts to act, of alwayes willing or nilling; but not further of effecting. For it is only a will that is left unto Man whereby he may be desirous to oppugne and resist God: But he hath not a power whereby he is able. ”

“ For how is it possible that the losses of my Country should not touch and deeply affect me for my Country-mens and Companions sakes, who are toss'd in the Ocean of these Calamities, or perish by a different and unhappy Destiny. Langius interrupting me; but this Lipsius said he is not properly Grief, but Pitty; which yet it self is to be despis'd, by a wise and constant Person. For nothing is more suitable to such a one than firmness and strength of Mind, which cannot be, in case not only his own, but also anothers Calamity shall overturn and discompose him. ”

“ The Second Objection answered, that all have deserved punishment; in regard all have offended: That Men cannot judge who is more or less culpable. 'Tis God only that clearly discerns betwixt crimes, and therefore most justly punishes. Buut (say you) there are some people punished that are guiltless, and have no way deserved it: For this is your Second complaint or rather Calumny. Unadvised Youngman! Are there then any punished who have not deserved it? Where I beseech you are those innocent Nations to be found? ”

“ First, that a true estimation of the crimes of others, neither can nor ought to be attempted by Man: For how shall he do it; that not so much as observes them? And which way shall he put an exact difference, betwixt those things which he hath not so much as seen? For you will easily grant it me that it is the Mind that sins; by the Body and senses indeed as its instruments, but yet so as that the main business and weight of the crime, doth in the mean time depend upon it self. This is so exactly true; that if it appear any one hath unwillingly sinned; he is clear of the sin. ”

“ It is the whole World, wheresoever there are men sprung from that celestial seed. Socrates of old reply'd excellently to one that ask'd him of what Country he was: of the World said he. For a great and lofty mind includes not it self within the narrow limits of opinion: but in its apprehension and thought embraces this whole universe as its own. We have seen and derided the folly of such; whose keepers have tyed them in a nooz of straw only; or some slender thread: and yet they have stood as if they were shackl'd in fetters of iron: such a kind of madnesse is this of ours ”

“ The Souldier in the Camp upon Notice of a March, gets on his knap-sack; but if it sound to Armes, he layes it aside, as one who with his Mind, and Eyes, and Ears, is intent upon, and prepared for any command. Let it be thus with us, and in this Warfare of ours, let us chearfully and resolvedly March after our General, which way soever he shall command us. We are sworn to this, saith Seneca, to endure such things as Mortality is liable to, and not to be disturbed in case some things fall out, which it is not in our power to prevent. We are born in a Kingdom, and to obey God is Liberty it self. ”

“ Thus those great bodies the Heavens, the Earth, the Sea have their bounds; thus every Age hath its appointed number, and thus both Men, Cities, and Kingdomes have their stated accounts. Will they exceed these? It is necessary that some storme and tempest of Calamities do check and retard them: For otherwise they would endanger and bring damage to, this beautiful frame of the World. But those things especially would exceed these bounds very often, that are under the command of Encrease and Multiply. Look upon Men, who can deny that by nature we are born faster, than we naturally dye? ”

“ So God by the force of Fate disposes of all things; but destroyes not the peculiar power or motion of any of them. Is it his will that Trees, and Fruits should grow? They do so by Nature, without any compulsion. Is it his pleasure that Men should deliberate, and choose? They deliberate without any inforcement, and they choose with their own will. ”

“ What a Mass of things doth this Mind of ours with one thought embrace and compass? And fooles that we are do we not believe that more things can be seen into, and comprehended by him who hath created and made this very Sun, and Mind? ”

“ For if all these things are not only by the permission, but also by the immission of Almighty God: You who fret and resist, what do you but (as much as in you lyes) seise his scepter, and intrench upon the prerogative of his Empire? Blind Mortality! The Sun, Moon, Starrs, Elements, and all the successive Orders of Creatures, do willingly obey, and submit themselves to this Supream Law; only the Noblest piece of the Creation, Man lifts up his heel against, and replyes upon his Creator. ”

“ Thou Attila fly from the remotest parts of the World, and thirsting after blood and spoile, Sack, kill, burn, and wast; all this cruelty shall fight for God, and prove nothing else but an awakening of the Christians from slumbring in the Beds of Pleasure and Security. ”

“ So are wicked Men under a more grievous punishment, who with so low and indiscernible procedures are lead on to their eternal Death. It used to be the cruel command of Caligula; so strike as that he may feel he dyes; the same befalls these Men, whom their Conscience as an Executioner, doth daily torture, and even kill by these slow degrees of lesser and repeated stripes. Nor let the splendour or the inlarged power and wealth of those Men impose upon you: Since they are no more happy and fortunate for these than they are healthful, whose Gout or Feaver rests it self upon a purple Couch. ”

“ Bodies, are destined to their destruction and change; what shall we think of Cities, Common-wealths, and Kingdomes; which must needs be as mortal as the founders of them? As particular persons have their Youth, Maturity, Old-Age, and Death: So these, they rise, grow, stand, flourish; and all these to that very purpose that they may fall. In the reign of Tiberius one single Earth-quake overthrew twelve famous Cities of Asia, and another did the like to as many Townes in Campania, in the reign of Constantine; and one warre of Attila more than an hundred. ”

“ That Fate it self is not a cause, but a certain accidental Mode to the cause; in such things as proceed from Necessity. O the courage of a Philosopher! Who durst seriously Number, Fortune and chance amongst the causes, but not Fate. But I pass him, and return to my Stoicks (for not to dissemble I have a great affection and esteem for that Sect) who are the Authors of violent Fate; which I define with Seneca, such a Necessity of all things and actions: as no power is able to interrupt: Or with Chrysippus; a spiritual power that doth orderly govern this whole Universe. ”

“ For it is natural to Man to use authority insolently, and hardly to keep a mean in that which it self is above it. Even we our selves who complain of Tyranny, do yet carry the seeds of it inclosed in our bosoms: Nor is there a Will wanting in most of us to discover them, but the power. ”

“ Every age is building of Cities and Towns; and if fire or other wayes of destruction should not interpose; neither this world of ours, nor the other world would be able to contain them. The same may we imagine of the whole Creation. What wonder therefore is it if our Saturn doth sometimes thrust his Sickle into this over-grown Field; and reap thence some superfluous thousands, either by the pestilence or warr? ”

“ Anger and Revenge are humane Affections, and being the effects of weakness, are found only amongst the infirm. But that excellent Being doth eternally persevere in its benignity, and those very severities which we cast off from him, are only as Medicines; sharp and bitter to the sense, but healthful in their issue and events. That Homer of Philosophers said rightly God doth no evil, and therefore cannot be the cause of any. But better and more fully that wise one of ours. What is the cause of the Gods doing good? ”

“ That it is the Mind which is sick; a remedy for which is to be sought for from Wisdom and Constancy. You will say then: doth not travail call us away from those truer evils? will not the prospect of Fields, Rivers, and Mountains place us beyond the sense of our Grief? They may possibly call you off; and place you beyond: but neither for any time nor with any firmness. As the eye is not long delighted with a picture how excellent soever: So all that varietie of Men and places, may affect us with the Novelty; but it will not last long. ”