head, and bent the other downe to his Chin: Respondes, altero ad Frontem sublato, altero ad Mentum depresso Supercilio; Crudelitatem tibi non placere. Some thinke to beare it, by Speaking a great Word, and being peremptory; And goe on, and take by admittance that, which they cannot make good. Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will seeme to despise or make light of it, as Impertinent, or Curious; And so would have their Ignorance seeme Iudgement. Some are never without a Difference, and commonly by Amusing Men with a Subtilty, blanch the matter; Of whom A. Gellius saith; Hominem delirum, qui Verborum Minutijs Rerum frangit Pondera. Of which kinde also, Plato in his Protagoras bringeth in Prodicus, in Scorne, and maketh him make a Speech, that consisteth of distinctions from the Beginning to the End. Generally, Such Men in all Deliberations, finde ease to be of the Negative Side; and affect a Credit, to obiect and foretell Difficulties: For when propositions are denied, there is an End of them; But if they be allowed, it requireth a New Worke: which false Point of Wisedome, is the Bane of Businesse. To conclude, there is no decaying Merchant, or Inward Beggar, hath so many Tricks, to uphold the Credit of their wealth, as these Empty persons have, to maintaine the Credit of their Sufficiency. Seeming Wise-men may make shift to get Opinion: But let no Man choose them for Employment; For certainly, you were better take for Businesse, a Man somewhat Absurd, then over Formall.

Astor

IT

XXVII

Of Frendship

T had beene hard for him that spake it, to have put more Truth and untruth together, in few Words, then in that Speech; Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wilde Beast, or a God. For it is most true, that a Naturall and Secret Hatred, and Aversation towards Society, in any Man, hath somewhat of the Savage Beast; But it is most Untrue, that it should have any Character, at all, of the Divine Nature; Except it proceed, not out of a Pleasure in Solitude, but out of a Love and desire, to sequester a Mans Selfe, for a Higher Conversation: Such as is found, to have been falsely and fainedly, in some of the Heathen; As Epimenides the Candian, Numa the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, and Apollonius of Tyana; And truly and really, in divers of the Ancient Hermits, and Holy Fathers of the Church. But little doe Men perceive, what Solitude is, and how farre it extendeth. For a Crowd is not Company; And Faces are but a Gallery of Pictures; And Talke but a Tinckling Cymball,

where there is no Love. The Latine Adage meeteth with it a little; Magna Civitas, Magna solitudo; Because in a great Towne, Frends are scattered; So that there is not that Fellowship, for the most Part, which is in lesse Neighbourhoods. But we may goe further, and affirme most truly; That it is a meere, and miserable Solitude, to want true Frends; without which the World, is but a Wildernesse: And even in this sense also of Solitude, whosoever in the Frame of his Nature and Affections, is unfit for Frendship, he taketh it of the Beast, and not from Humanity.

A principall Fruit of Frendship, is the Ease and Discharge of the Fulnesse and Swellings of the Heart, which Passions of all kinds doe cause and induce. We know Diseases of Stoppings, and Suffocations, are the most dangerous in the body; And it is not much otherwise in the Minde: You may take Sarza to open the Liver; Steele to open the Spleene; Flowers of Sulphur for the Lungs; Castoreum for the Braine; But no Receipt openeth the Heart, but a true Frend; To whom you may impart, Griefes, Ioyes, Feares, Hopes, Suspicions, Counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the Heart, to oppresse it, in a kind of Civill Shrift or Confession.

It is a Strange Thing to observe, how high a Rate, Great Kings and Monarchs, do set upon this Fruit of Frendship, wherof we speake: So great, as they purchase it, many times, at the hazard of their owne Safety, and Greatnesse. For Princes, in regard of the distance of their Fortune, from that of their Subiects & Servants,

cannot gather this Fruit; Except (to make Themselves capable thereof) they raise some Persons, to be as it were Companions, and almost Equals to themselves, which many times sorteth to Inconvenience. The Moderne Languages give unto such Persons, the Name of Favorites, or Privadoes; As if it were Matter of Grace, or Conversation. But the Roman Name attaineth the true Use, and Cause thereof; Naming them Participes Curarum; For it is that, which tieth the knot. And we see plainly, that this hath been done, not by Weake and Passionate Princes onely, but by the Wisest, and most Politique that ever reigned; Who have oftentimes ioyned to themselves, some of their Servants; Whom both Themselves have called Frends; And allowed Others likewise to call them in the same manner; Using the Word which is received between Private Men.

L. Sylla, when he commanded Rome, raised Pompey (after surnamed the Great) to that Heigth, that Pompey vaunted Himselfe for Sylla's Overmatch. For when he had carried the Consulship for a Frend of his, against the pursuit of Sylla, and that Sylla did a little resent thereat, and began to speake great, Pompey turned upon him againe, and in effect bad him be quiet; For that more Men adored the Sunne Rising, then the Sunne setting. With Iulius Cæsar, Decimus Brutus had obtained that Interest, as he set him downe, in his Testament, for Heire in Remainder, after his Nephew. And this was the Man, that had power with him, to draw him forth to his death. For when Casar would have

discharged the Senate, in regard of some ill Presages, and specially a Dreame of Calpurnia; This Man lifted him gently by the Arme, out of his Chaire, telling him, he hoped he would not dismisse the Senate, till his wife had dreamt a better Dreame. And it seemeth, his favour was so great, as Antonius in a Letter, which is recited Verbatim, in one of Cicero's Philippiques, calleth him Venefica, Witch; As if he had enchanted Cæsar. Augustus raised Agrippa (though of meane Birth) to that Heighth, as when he consulted with Macenas, about the Marriage of his Daughter Iulia, Mæcenas tooke the Liberty to tell him; That he must either marry his Daughter to Agrippa, or take away his life, there was no third way, he had made him so great. With Tiberius Cæsar, Seianus had ascended to that Height, as they Two were tearmed and reckoned, as a Paire of Frends. Tiberius in a Letter to him saith; Hæc pro Amicitia nostra non occultavi: And the whole Senate, dedicated an Altar to Frendship, as to a Goddesse, in respect of the great Dearenesse of Frendship, between them Two. The like or more was between Septimius Severus, and Plautianus. For he forced his Eldest Sonne to marry the Daughter of Plautianus; And would often maintaine Plautianus, in doing Affronts to his Son And did write also in a Letter to the Senate, by these Words; I love the Man so well, as I wish he may over-live me. Now if these Princes, had beene as a Traian, or a Marcus Aurelius, A Man might have thought, that this had proceeded of an abundant Goodnesse of Nature;