Complete.
PLUTARCH says somewhere, that he does not find so great a difference betwixt beast and beast as he does betwixt man and man. Which is said in reference to the internal qualities and perfections of the soul. And, in truth, I find (according to my poor judgment) so vast a distance betwixt Epaminondas, and some that I know (who are yet men of common sense), that I could willingly enhance upon Plutarch, and say that there is more difference betwixt such and such a man, than there is betwixt such a man and such a beast:—
| Heu vir viro quid præstat!—Ter. For. Act. ix., Sc. 3. |
| ———How much alas, | |
| One man another doth surpass! |
And that there are as many and innumerable degree of wits, as there are cubits betwixt this and heaven. But as touching the estimate of men, ’tis strange that, our selves excepted, no other creature is esteem’d beyond its proper qualities. We commend a horse for his strength, and sureness of foot,
| ————volucrem | |
| Sic laudamus equum, facili eui plurima palm. | |
| Fervet, et exultat rauco victoria circo. | |
—Juv. Sat. 8. |
| “So we commend the horse for being fleet, | |
| Who many palms by breath and speed does get, | |
| And which the trumpets in the circle grace, | |
| With their hoarse clangours for his well-run race.” |
and not for his rich caparisons; a greyhound for his share of heels, not for his fine collar; a hawk for her wing, not for her gesses and bells. Why, in like manner, do we not value a man for what is properly his own? He has a great train, a beautiful palace, so much credit, so many thousand pounds a year, and all these are about him, but not in him. You will not buy a pig in a poke; if you cheapen a horse, you will see him stripp’d of his housing-cloaths, you will see him naked and open to your eye; or if he be cloath’d, as they anciently were wont to present them to princes to sell, ’tis only on the less important parts, that you may not so much consider the beauty of his color, or the breadth of his crupper, as principally to examine his limbs, eyes, and feet, which are the members of greatest use:—
| Regibus hic mos est, ubi equos mercantur, opertos | |
| Suspiciunt, ne si facies, ut sæpe, decora | |
| Molli fulta pede est, emptorem inducat hiantem, | |
| Quod pulchra clunes, breve quod caput, ardua cervix. | |
—Hor. Lib. I., Sat. 2. |
| “When kings’ steeds cloath’d, as ’tis their manner, buy, | |
| They straight examine very curiously, | |
| Lest a short head, a thin and well-rais’d crest, | |
| A broad-spread buttock, and an ample chest, | |
| Should all be propt with an old beaten hoof, | |
| To gull the buyer, when they come to proof.” |
Why, in giving your estimate of a man, do you prize him wrapp’d and muffled up in cloaths? He then discovers nothing to you but such parts as are not in the least his own; and conceals those by which alone one may rightly judge of his value. ’Tis the price of the blade that you inquire into, and not of the scabbard; you would not, peradventure, bid a farthing for him, if you saw him stripp’d. You are to judge him by himself, and not by what he wears. And as one of the Ancients very pleasantly said, “Do you know why you repute him tall? You reckon withal the height of his chepines, whereas the pedestal is no part of the statue.” Measure him without his stilts, let him lay aside his revenues, and his titles, let him present himself in his shirt, then examine if his body be sound and spritely, active and dispos’d to perform its functions? What soul has he? Is she beautiful, capable, and happily provided of all her faculties? Is she rich of what is her own, or of what she has borrowed? Has fortune no hand in the affair? Can she, without winking, stand the lightning of swords; is she indifferent, whether her life expire by the mouth, or through the throat? Is she settled, even, and content? This is what is to be examin’d, and by that you are to judge of the vast differences betwixt man and man. Is he—
| ————sapiens, sibique imperiosus | |
| Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent, | |
| Responsare cupidinibus, contemnere honores | |
| Fortis, et in seipso totus teres atque rotundus, | |
| Externi nequid valeat per læve morari, | |
| In quem manca ruit semper fortuna? | |
—Hor. Lib. II., Sat. 7. |
| “Wise, and commanding o’er his appetite, | |
| One whom, nor want, nor death, nor bonds, can fright, | |
| To check his lusts, and honours scorn, so stout, | |
| And in himself so round and clear throughout, | |
| That no external thing can stop his course, | |
| And on whom fortune vainly tries her force,”— |
such a man is rais’d five hundred fathoms above kingdoms and dutchies, he is an absolute monarch in and to himself.
| Sapiens pol ipse fingit fortunam sibi. | |
—Plaut. Tri., Act. ii., Sc. 2. |
| “The wise man his own fortune makes. | |
| What remains for him to covet, or desire?” |
Compare with such a one the common rabble of mankind, stupid and mean spirited, servile, instable, and continually floating with the tempest of various passions, that tosses and tumbles them to and fro, and all depending upon others, and you will find a greater distance than betwixt heaven and earth; and yet the blindness of common usage is such, that we make little or no account of it. Whereas, if we consider a peasant, and a king, a nobleman, and a villain, a magistrate, and a private man, a rich man, and a poor, there appears a vast disparity, though they differ no more (as a man may say) than in their breeches. In Thrace, the king was distinguish’d from his people, after a very pleasant manner; he had a religion by himself, a god of his own, and which his subjects were not to presume to adore, which was Mercury, whilst, on the other side, he disdain’d to have any thing to do with theirs, Mars, Bacchus, and Diana. And yet they are no other than pictures, that make no essential dissimilitude; for as you see actors in a play, representing the person of a duke, or an emperour, upon the stage, and immediately after, in the tiring room, return to their true and original condition, so the emperour, whose pomp and lustre, does so dazzle you in publick,—
| Silicet, et grandes viridi cum luce smaragdi | |
| Auro includuntur, teriturque Thalassina vestis | |
| Assidue, et veneris sudorem exercita petat. | |
—Luc., l. 4. |
| “Great emeralds richly are in gold enchast, | |
| To dart green lustre, and the sea-green vest | |
| Continually is worn and rubb’d to frets, | |
| Whilst it imbibes the juice that Venus sweats.” |
do but peep behind the curtain, and you’ll see nothing more than an ordinary man and, peradventure, more contemptible than the meanest of his subjects. “Ille beatus introrsum est, istius bracteata felicitas est.”—Sen. Ep. 115. “True happiness lies within, the other is but a counterfeit felicity.” Cowardice, irresolution, ambition, spite, and envy are as predominant in him as in another.
| Non enim gazæ, neque consularis | |
| Mentis, et curas laqueata circum | |
| Summovet lictor miseros tumultus | |
| Tecta volantes. | |
—Hor. Lib. II., Ode 16. |
| “For neither wealth, honours, nor offices, | |
| Can the wild tumults of the mind appease, | |
| Nor chase those cares, that with unweary’d wings | |
| Hover about the palaces of kings.” |
Nay, solitude and fear attack him even in the centre of his battalions. Do fevers, gouts, and apoplexies, spare them any more than one of us? When old age hangs heavy upon a prince’s shoulders, can the yeomen of his guard ease him of the burthen? When he is astonish’d with the apprehension of death, can the gentlemen of his bedchamber comfort and assure him? When jealousie, or any other capricio swims in his brain, can our compliments and ceremonies restore him to his good-humour? The canopy embroider’d with pearl and gold, he lies under, has no vertue against a violent fit of the stone or cholick….
In Anacharsis his opinion, the happiest estate of government would be, where all other things being equal, precedency should be measur’d out by the vertues, and repulses by the vices of men. When King Pyrrhus prepar’d for his expedition into Italy, his wise counsellor Cyneas, to make him sensible of the vanity of his ambition; “Well, sir, (said he), to what end do you make all this mighty preparation?” “To make myself master of Italy,” (reply’d the king). “And what after that is done?” (said Cyneas.) “I will pass over into Gaul and Spain,” said the other. “And what then?” “I will then go to subdue Africk; and lastly, when I have brought the whole world to my subjection, I will sit down and rest content at my own ease.” “For God’s sake, sir, (reply’d Cyneas), tell me what hinders, that you may not, if you please, be now in the condition you speak of? Why do you not now at this instant, settle yourself in the state you seem to aim at, and spare the labour and hazard you interpose?”
| Nimirum quia non bene norat quæ esset habendi | |
| Finis, et omnino quoad crescat vera voluptas. | |
—Lucret., l. 5. |
| “The end of being rich he did not know; | |
| Nor to what pitch felicity should grow.” |
