Extreames are equally removed from the meane; ſo that headlong deſperateneſſe aſmuch offends true valour, as backward Cowardice: of which ſort I reckon juſtly all un-inforced deaths. When will your valiant man dye of neceſſity? ſo Cowards ſuffer what cannot be avoided: and to runne into death unimportun’d, is to runne into the firſt condemned deſperateneſſe. Will he dye when he is rich and happy? then by living he may doe more good: and in afflictions and miſeries, death is the choſen refuge of Cowards.
Fortiter ille facit, qui miſer eſſe poteſt.
But it is taught and practiſed among our Galants, that rather than our reputations ſuffer any maime, or we any miſery, wee ſhall offer our breſts to the Cannons mouth, yea to our ſwords points: And this ſeemes a very brave and a very climbing (which is a Cowardly, earthly, and indeed a very groveling) ſpirit. [25] ]Why doe they chaine theſe ſlaves to the Gallyes, but that they thruſt their deaths, and would at every looſe leape into the ſea? Why doe they take weapons from condemned men, but to barre them of that eaſe which Cowards affect, a ſpeedy death. Truely this life is a tempeſt, and a warfare, and he which dares dye, to eſcape the anguiſh of it, ſeems to mee, but ſo valiant, as hee which dares hang himſelfe, leſt hee be preſt to the warres. I have ſeene one in that extremity of melancholy, which was then become madneſſe, to make his owne breath an Inſtrument to ſtay his breath, and labour to choake himſelfe, but alas! he was mad. And we knew another that languiſhed under the oppreſſion of a poore diſgrace ſo much, that hee tooke more paines to dye, then would have ſerved to have nouriſhed life and ſpirit enough to have outlived his diſgrace. What Foole will call this Cowardlineſſe, Valour? or this Baſeneſſe, Humility? And laſtly, of theſe men which dye the Allegoricall death of entring into Religion, how few are found fit for any ſhew of valiancy? but onely a ſoft and ſupple metall, made onely for Cowardly ſolitarineſſe.
[26]
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10.
That a Wiſe Man is knowne by much laughing.
Ride, ſi ſapis, ô puella ride; If thou beeſt wiſe, laugh: for ſince the powers of diſcourſe, reaſon, and laughter, bee equally proper unto Man onely, why ſhall not hee be onely moſt wiſe, which hath moſt uſe of laughing, aſwell as he which hath moſt of reaſoning and diſcourſing? I alwaies did, and ſhall underſtand that Adage;
Per riſum multum poſſis cognoſcere ſtultum,