[12]
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4.
That good is more common then evill.
I have not been ſo pittifully tired with any vanity, as with ſilly Old Mens exclaiming againſt theſe times, and extolling their owne: Alas! they betray themſelves, for if the times be changed, their manners have changed them. But their ſenſes are to pleaſures, as ſick Mens taſtes are to Liquors; for indeed no new thing is done in the world, all things are what, and as they were, and Good is as ever it was, more plenteous, and muſt of neceſſity be more common then evill, becauſe it hath this for nature and perfection to bee common. It makes Love to all Natures, all, all affect it. So that in the Worlds early Infancy, there was a time when nothing was evill, but if this World ſhall ſuffer dotage in the extreameſt crookedneſſe thereof, there ſhall be no time when nothing ſhal be good. It dares [13] ]appeare and ſpread, and gliſter in the World, but evill buries it ſelfe in night and darkneſſe, and is chaſtiſed and ſuppreſſed when good is cheriſhed and rewarded. And as Imbroderers, Lapidaries, and other Artiſans, can by all things adorne their workes; for by adding better things, the better they ſhew in Luſh and in Eminency; ſo good doth not onely proſtrate her amiableneſſe to all, but refuſes no end, no not of her utter contrary evill, that ſhee may bee the more common to us. For euill manners are parents of good Lawes; and in every evill there is an excellency, which (in common ſpeech) we call good. For the faſhions of habits, for our moving in geſtures, for phraſes in our ſpeech, we ſay they were good as long as they were uſed, that is, as long as they were common; and wee eate, wee walke, onely when it is, or ſeemes good to doe ſo. All faire, all profitable, all vertuous, is good, and theſe three things I thinke embrace all things, but their utter contraries; of which alſo faire may be rich and vertuous; poore may bee vertuous and faire; vitious may be faire and rich; ſo that good hath this good meanes to be common, that ſome ſubjects ſhe can poſſeſſe intirely; and in ſubjects poyſoned with evill, ſhe can humbly ſtoop to accompany the evill. And of indifferent things many [14] ]things are become perfectly good by being common, as cuſtomes by uſe are made binding Lawes. But I remember nothing that is therefore ill, becauſe it is common, but Women, of whom alſo; They that are moſt common, are the beſt of that Occupation they profeſſe.
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5.
That all things kill themſelves.
To affect, yea to effect their owne death all living things are importuned, not by Nature only which perfects them, but by Art and Education, which perfects her. Plants quickened and inhabited by the moſt unworthy ſoule, which therefore neither will nor worke, affect an end, a perfection, a death; this they ſpend their ſpirits to attaine, this attained, they languiſh and wither. And by how much more they are by mans Induſtry warmed, cheriſhed, and pampered; ſo much the more early they climbe to this perfection, this death. And if amongſt Men not to defend be to kill, what a hainous ſelfe-murther is it, not to defend it ſelfe. This defence becauſe Beaſts neglect, they kill themſelves, becauſe they exceed us in number, ſtrength, and a lawleſſe liberty: yea, of Horſes and other beaſts, [16] ]they that inherit moſt courage by being bred of gallanteſt parents, and by Artificial nurſing are bettered, will runne to their owne deaths, neither ſollicited by ſpurres which they need not, nor by honour which they apprehend not. If then the valiant kill himſelfe, who can excuſe the coward? Or how ſhall Man bee free from this, ſince the firſt Man taught us this, except we cannot kill our ſelves, becauſe he kill’d us all. Yet leſt ſomething ſhould repaire this Common ruine, we daily kill our bodies with ſurfeits, and our mindes with anguiſhes. Of our powers, remembring kils our memory; Of Affections, Luſting our luſt; Of vertues, Giving kils liberality. And if theſe kill themſelves, they do it in their beſt & ſupreme perfection: for after perfection immediately follows exceſſe, which changeth the natures and the names, and makes them not the ſame things. If then the beſt things kill themſelves ſooneſt, (for no affection endures, and all things labour to this perfection) all travell to their owne death, yea the frame of the whole World, if it were poſſible for God to be idle, yet becauſe it began, muſt dye. Then in this idleneſſe imagined in God, what could kill the world but it ſelfe, ſince out of it, nothing is?