VIII. Pittacus being asked what was best, he answered, "to do the present thing well."[14] He would say, what thou dost take ill in thy neighbour, do not thyself. Reproach not the unhappy; for the hand of God is upon them. Be true to thy trust. Bear with thy neighbour: love thy neighbour. Reproach not thy friend, though he recede from thee a little. He would say that commonwealth is best ordered where the wicked have no command, and that family, which hath neither ornament nor necessity. To conclude: he advised to acquire honesty; love discipline; observe temperance; gain prudence; mind diligence; and keep truth, faith, and piety. He had a brother, who, dying without issue, left him his estate; so that when Crœsus offered him wealth he answered, "I have more by half than I desire." He also affirmed that family the best who got not unjustly, kept not unfaithfully, spent not with repentance; and that happiness consists in a virtuous and honest life: in being content with a competency of outward things, and in using them temperately. And to conclude, he earnestly enjoined all to flee corporeal pleasure; "for," says he, "it certainly brings sorrow: but observe an honest life more strictly than an oath: meditate on serious things."
IX. Hippias, a philosopher: it is recorded of him[15] that he would have every one provide his own necessaries; and, that he might do what he taught, he was his own tradesman. He was singular in all such arts and employments, insomuch as he made the very buskins he wore. A better life than Alexander's.
X. The Bambycatii[16] were a certain great people that inhabited about the river Tigris, in Asia, who, observing the great influence gold, silver, and precious jewels had upon their minds, agreed to bury all in the earth to prevent the corruption of their manners.—They used inferior metals, and lived with very ordinary accommodation; wearing mostly but one very grave and plain robe to cover nakedness. It were well if Christians would mortify their insatiable appetites after wealth and vanity any way, for heathens judge their excess.
XI. The Athenians had two distinct numbers of men, called the Gynæcosmi and Gynæconomi.[17] These were appointed by the magistrates to overlook the actions of the people: the first were to see that they apparelled and behaved themselves gravely; especially that women were of modest behaviour; and the other were to be present at their treats and festivals, to see that there was no excess, nor disorderly carriage; and in case any were found criminal, they had full power to punish them. When, alas! when shall this care and wisdom be seen amongst the Christians of these times, that so intemperance might be prevented? But it is too evident they love the power and the profits, but despise the virtue of government, making it an end instead of a means to that happy end, viz. the well ordering the manners and conversation of the people, and equally distributing rewards and punishments.
XII. Anacharsis, a Scythian, was a great philosopher;[18] Crœsus offered him large sums of money, but he refused them. Hanno did the like, to whom he answered, "My apparel is a Scythian rug; my shoes, the hardness of my feet; my bed, the earth; my sauce, hunger: you may come to me as one that is contented; but those gifts which you so much esteem, bestow on your citizens."
XIII. Anaxagoras, a nobleman, but true philosopher,[19] left his great patrimony to seek out wisdom; and being reproved by his friends for the little care he had of his estate, answered, "It is enough that you care for it." One asked him why he had no more love for his country than to leave it; "Wrong me not," saith he, "my greatest care is my country," pointing his finger towards heaven. Returning home, and taking a view of his great possessions, "If I had not disregarded them," saith he, "I had perished." He was a great clearer and improver of the doctrine of One Eternal God, denying divinity to sun, moon, and stars, saying, "God was infinite, not confined to place; the eternal wisdom and efficient cause of all things; the divine mind and understanding; who, when matter was confused, came and reduced it to order, which is the world we see." He suffered much from some magistrates for his opinion; yet dying, was admired by them.
XIV. Heraclitus was invited by king Darius, for his great virtue and learning, to this effect: "Come as soon as thou canst to my presence and royal palace; for the Greeks, for the most part, are not obsequious to wise men, but despise the good things which they deliver. With me thou shalt have the first place, and daily honour and titles: thy way of living shall be as noble as thy instructions." But Heraclitus, refusing his offer, returned this answer: "Heraclitus to Darius the king, health. Most men refrain from justice and truth to pursue insatiableness and vain glory, by reason of their folly: but I, having forgotten all evil, and shunning the society of inbred envy and pride, will never come to the kingdom of Persia, being contented with a little according to my own mind." He also slighted the Athenians. He had great and clear apprehensions of the nature and power of God, maintaining his divinity against the idolatry in fashion. This definition he gives of God: "He is not made with hands. The whole world, adorned with his creatures, is his mansion. Where is God? Shut up in temples? Impious men! who place their God in the dark. It is a reproach to a man to tell him he is a stone, yet the god you profess is born of a rock: you ignorant people! you know not God: his works bear witness of him." Of himself he saith, "O ye men, will ye not learn why I never laugh? It is not that I hate men, but their wickedness. If you would not have me weep, live in peace: you carry swords in your tongues; you plunder wealth, poison friends, betray the trust the people repose in you: shall I laugh when I see men do these things? Their garments, beards, and heads adorned with unnecessary care; a mother deserted by a wicked son; or young men consuming their patrimony; others filling their bellies at feasts more with poison than with dainties. Virtue would strike me blind if I should laugh at your wars. By music, pipes, and stripes you are excited to things contrary to all harmony. Iron, a metal more proper for ploughs and tillage, is fitted for slaughter and death; men raising armies of men, covet to kill one another, and punish them that quit the field for not staying to murder men. They honour as valiants such as are drunk with blood; but lions, horses, eagles, and other creatures, use not swords, bucklers, and instruments of war: their limbs are their weapons,—some their horns, some their bills, some their wings; to one is given swiftness, to another bigness, to a third swimming. No irrational creature useth a sword, but keeps itself within the laws of its creation, except man, that doth not so, which brings the heavier blame, because he hath the greatest understanding.—You must leave your wars, and your wickedness, which you ratify by a law, if you would have me leave my severity. I have overcome pleasure, I have overcome riches, I have overcome ambition, I have mastered flattery: fear hath nothing to object against me, drunkenness hath nothing to charge upon me, anger is afraid of me: I have won the garland in fighting against these enemies."—This, and much more, did he write in his epistles to Hermodorus, of his complaints against the great degeneracy of the Ephesians. And in an epistle to Aphidamus he writes, "I am fallen sick, Aphidamus, of a dropsy; whatsoever is of us, if it get the dominion, it becomes a disease. Excess of heat is a fever; excess of cold, a palsy; excess of wind a cholic: my disease cometh from excess of moisture. The soul is something divine, which keeps all these in a due proportion. I know the nature of the world; I know that of man; I know diseases; I know health: but if my body be overpressed, it must descend to the place ordained; however, my soul shall not descend; but being a thing immortal, I shall ascend on high, where a heavenly mansion shall receive me."
A most weighty and pathetical discourse: they that know anything of God may savour something divine in it. O that the degenerate Christians of these times would but take a view of the virtue, temperance, zeal, piety, and faith of this heathen, who notwithstanding that he lived five hundred years before the coming of Christ in the flesh, had these excellent sentences! Yet again, he taught that God punisheth not by taking away riches; he rather alloweth them to the wicked to discover them; for poverty may be a veil. Speaking of God, "How can that light which never sets be ever hidden or obscured?" "Justice," saith he, "shall seize one day upon defrauders and witnesses of false things." Unless a man hope to the end for that which is to be hoped for, he shall not find that which is unsearchable; which Clemens, an ancient father, applied to Isaiah vi. "Unless you believe, you shall not understand." Heraclitus lived solitarily in the mountains; had a sight of his end; and as he was prepared for it, so he rejoiced in it. These certainly were the men who, having not a law, without them, became a law unto themselves, showing forth the work of the law written in their hearts; (Rom. ii. 14;) and who for that reason shall judge the circumcision, and receive the reward of "Well done," by him who is Judge of quick and dead.
XV. Democritus would say, that he had lived to an extraordinary age by keeping himself from luxury and excess. That a little estate went a great way with men that were neither covetous nor prodigal. That luxury furnished great tables with variety: and temperance furnished little ones. That riches do not consist in the possession, but right use of wealth. He was a man of great retirement, avoiding public honours and employments; bewailed by the people of Abdera as mad, whilst indeed he only smiled at the madness of the world.
XVI. Socrates, the most religious and learned philosopher of his time, and of whom it is reported Apollo gave this character, that he was the wisest man on earth,[20] was a man of a severe life, and instructed people gratis in just, grave, and virtuous manners; for which, being envied by Aristophanes, the vain, comical wit of that age, as one spoiling the trade of plays, and exercising the generality of the people with more noble and virtuous things,[21] was represented by him in a play, in which he rendered Socrates so ridiculous, that the vulgar would rather part with Socrates in earnest than Socrates in jest; which made way for their impeaching him as an enemy to their gods; for which they put him to death. But in a short space his eighty judges and the whole people so deeply resented the loss, that they slew many of his accusers: some hanged themselves; none would trade with them nor answer them a question. They erected several statues to his praise; they forbad his name to be mentioned, that they might forget their injustice: they called home his banished friends and scholars; and by the most wise and learned men of that age it is observed, that famous city Athens was punished with the most dreadful plagues that ever raged amongst them, and all Greece with it never prospered in any considerable undertaking, but from that time always decayed. Amongst many of his sober and religious maxims upon which he was accustomed to discourse with his disciples, these are some: