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desires, but change them as the cat's unum magnum' was more worth to her, than all the variety of shifts which the fox did boast of; and one sun doth more comfort us in the day, than many thousand stars in the night".

Again; desires are either of things excellent, as the virtuous and spiritual desires of the soul, whereby men move towards God; and these do neither load the heart, nor cloy it, but much rather open and enlarge it for more. No man was so well acquainted with God as Moses, who yet was the more importunate to know him better: "I beseech thee, show me thy glory:"-nor any man more acquainted with Christ than St. Paul, who yet desired to be dissolved, and to be with Christ' nearer1.

Other desires are of middle things, rà μeTağù, as the philosopher calls them "; such as wealth, profit, victory, honour, which are not good in themselves, but as they are managed. And these desires, though not extinguished, yet are very much assuaged and moderated by the weight and wisdom of solid contentment. He was a wise man, and knew all the quintessence, and whatever was desirable in the creature, who said, "Da mihi panem statuti mei," "Give me the bread of my allowance";” ὅσον ἡ τῆς χρείας ἀνάγκη пag' Яμãν àπαιтε (Theophyl.) so much as the quality of my place and state requireth ;-which is that, which our Saviour limiteth our desires unto, ἀρτὸς ἐπιούσιος and σιτομέτριον, our portion and dimensum'"; phμepos τpoon, in St. James, daily food'; and was pleased to answer that Wise King in that his request, and to give us a record and catalogue of his daily bread '.

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Another cause of desire may be admiration: a strange thing, though monstrous and deformed, calleth the eyes of every man unto it. Rarity is a marvellous lenocinium,' and enticer of desire. Estivæ nives, hybernæ rosa,' as the panegyrist spake; snow in the summer, and roses in the winter;-the birds of this country, and the root of another; dainties hardly procured without the shipwrecks of men, to

h Plut. de Solert. Animal.

acerrimus. Sen. ep. 225.

i Sapiens est divitiarum naturalium quæsitor 1 Phil. i. 23. · Ὁ ἐπὶ τῇ οὐσίᾳ

* Exod. xxxiii. 18.

n Prov. xxx. 8.

P Luke xii. 42.

m Arist. Ethic. lib. 7. cap. 6.
ἡμῶν ἁρμόζων, ἢ ὁ καθημέραν. Suidas.
ii. 15.

4 James

1 Kings iv. 22. Vide Wascr. de mensuris, 1. 2. c. 3. et Angel.

Caninium de pane quotid. ad calcem Instit. Syria. Stuck. Conviv. I. 1. cap. 22.

feed the gluttony rather of the eye than of the belly;-these are the delights of the curiosities of men. The same fruits when they are worse, but rarer, have a far greater value set upon them, than when exposed by their commonness unto every man's purchase. And it was a wise complaint of old Cato, that it went ill with the city, when a fish was sold for more than an ox.' We see desires do not put forth themselves more freely in any than in children. I think, the chief reason of it is the same, which the philosopher giveth of their memories', 'because every thing to them is new and strange: for strange things, as they make stronger impressions upon the retentive, so they do upon the appetitive faculties. And therefore we find Herod ", who cared nothing at all for the doctrine of Christ, because it was holy and divine, yet had a great desire to have seen his miracles, because they were wonderful. And men have travelled far to see those persons and things, the fame whereof they have before admired; strange learning, strange birds and beasts, strange flowers and roots, strange fashions; yea, strange sins too, (which are the curiosity and corruption of nature) are marvellous attractive, and beget emulation amongst men. Nero gave rewards to the inventors of strange lusts. Even Solomon's ships (besides substantial treasure) did bring home apes and peacocks. Athens, which was the eye, the flower, and the epitome of Greece (to show that this curiosity is the disease as well of wits as of childhood) spent all their time and study in enquiring after new things. And for this cause it is (as I conceive) that wise men have made laws to interdict the transporting of their country fruits into other places, lest the sight of them should kindle in strangers a desire to be masters of the countries where they grew; as we see the grapes and figs of Canaan were used as incentives unto the expedition of Israel. And hence' Plutarch telleth us, that the word sycophant is derived, to note originally such as detected those, who surreptitiously transported

t Rhet. lib. 2.

"Luke xxiii. 8.

w Ari

x 1 Kings

• Plut. Apoph. stippus Athenas navigavit, Socratem invisurus. Plutarch. de Curios. 13. Plato Ægyptum, Italiam, Siciliam petiit, philosophiæ causa.-Vid. Theod.Orat. 1. de fide.-Zeph. i. 8. Arist. Tom. 2. Orat. de pace. Vid. Cal. Rho, 1. 10. c. 25. Plut. in Solon. et de Curiosit. et lib.

y Acts xvii. 21.

1. Cod. quæ res exportari non debeant.

figs into other countries. As, on the other side, we read, that the Athenians set up a pillar, wherein they published him to be an enemy of the city, who should bring gold out of Media, as an instrument to corrupt them. And the Roman governor commanded his soldiers, that they should not carry any gold or silver into the field with them, lest thereby they should be looked on by the adversary, as the Persians by Alexander, rather as a prey than a foe .

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A third cause which I shall touch on of exciting desires, is height and greatness of mind, which cannot well set bounds of measure unto itself; as Seneca said in another sense, magnitudo non habet certum modum c.' Great minds have great ends, and those can never be advanced but with vast and various desires. A great ship will not be carried with the sail of a lighter; nor can an eagle fly with the wings of a sparrow. Alexander was not so great in his victories, as in his desires, whom one world could not satisfyd; nor Pompey in his triumphs, as in his ambition, to whom it was not enough to be great, except he might be the greatest".

6

Another cause of desires may be curiosity; which is nothing else but a desire of prying into, and lusting after the businesses of other men; which is called by Solomon, 'ambulatio animæ,' the walking up and down of the soul '; as he elsewhere telleth us, that the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth :'-such a man being like the witches which Plutarch speaks of", that wear eyes when they went abroad, but put them in a box when they came home :-or like the falconer's hawks, that are hooded in the house, and never suffered to use their eyes, but to the hurt of other birds like a man in a dungeon, that sees nothing where he is, but can see a great deal of light abroad at a little passage. So these kind of men have vast desires of foreign knowledge, but wonderfully shun the acquaintance of themselves'. As they say of a swine, that he looks every way but upward;

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Eccles. vi. 9.

a Arist. Tom. 3. Orat. 2. Elius Spart. in Pescen. Nig. Epist. 43. d Estuat infœlix angusto limite mundi, Ut Gyaræ inclusus scopulis, &c. Juv. Satir. 10. e Sen. de Benef. 1. 7. c. 7. p. 94. et 119. Prov. xvii. 24. h Plut. de Cur. fugit. Lucret. apud Sen. de Tranquil. c. 2. otia recte Ponere, &c. Horat.

i Hoc se quisque modo semper Non horam tecum esse potes, non

so we may of pragmatists, that their eyes look all ways but inward. Whereas the minds of prudent men are like the windows of Solomon's temple, broader inward than outward. As the pillar that went before Israel in the sea, whose light side was towards Israel, but the dark towards Pharaoh: or as the sun in an eclipse, whose light is perfect inwards, though towards us it be darkened. A wise man's eyes are in his head; whereas a fool hath νοῦν ἐπὶ πτέρναις : as it is in the Proverbs, his mind is in his heels' only, to wander and gad abroad.

CHAP. XVII.

Of other causes of Desire, infirmity, temerity, mutability of mind, knowledge, repentance, hope. Of the effects of it in general, labour, languor: in special, of rational desires, bounty, grief, weariness, indignation against that which withstands it. Of vicious desires, ingratitude, envy, greediness, baseness of resolution.

OTHER causes of desires are infirmity, rashness, and mutability of mind; which three I put in one, as having a near relation and dependence within themselves. For, commonly", impotent appetitions, as those of children, of sick, of incontinent persons, are both temerarious in precipitating the mind, and anticipating the dictates of reason which should regulate or restrain them: as also mutable and wandering, like the bee from one flower unto another; infirmity not suffering a man to hold fast his decrees, and temerity not suffering him to resolve on any; and lastly, mutability making him weary of those things which weakness and rashness had unadvisedly transported him unto. Omnium imperitorum animus in lubrico est: Weak minds have ever wavering and unfixed resolutions. Like fickle and nauseating stomachs, which long for many things, and can eat none: like sick bodies, quæ mutationibus, ut remediis, utuntur,' as Seneca speaks; which toss from side to side, and think, by chang

* 1 Kings vi. 4.

a 8 Ακρασίας δὲ, τὸ μὲν προπέτεια, τὸ δὲ ἀσθένεια· οἱ μèv yàp Bouλevoάμevoi, &c. Arist. Eth. H'. cap. 7.

ing of their place they can leave their pain behind them." Like Achilles in the poet: (Il. w.)

*Αλλο ἐπὶ πλευρὰς κατακείμενος, ἄλλοτε δ' αὖτε
Ὕπλιος, ἄλλοῖς δὲ πρηνής· τότε δ ̓ ὀρθὸς ἀναστὰς,

Now he leans on his side, now supine lies;

Then grov'leth on his face, and straight doth rise.

The sickness and inconstancy of desires is thus elegantly described by the old poet Lucretius ©:

-"Ut nunc plerumque videmus:

Quid sibi quisque velit, nescire, et quærere semper;
Commutare locum, quasi onus deponere possit.
Exit sæpe foras magnis ex ædibus ille,

Esse domi quem pertæsum est, subitoque reventat.
Currit, agens mannos, ad villam præcipitanter,
Auxilium tectis quasi ferre ardentibus instans:
Oscitat extemplo, tetigit cum limina villæ;
Aut abit in somnum gravis, atque oblivia quærit :
Aut etiam properans urbem petit, atque revisit.
Hoc se quisque modo fugit: at, quem scilicet, ut fit,
Effugere haud potis est, ingratiis hæret, et obit."

We see how troubled mortals still enquire,
Yet ne'er can find what 'tis which they desire.
One changeth place, as if he could unload,
And leave his weights behind him. Runs abroad,
Weary of a great palace; straight turns back,
And hath not found the thing which he did lack.
Wearied both here and there, he mounts his steed;
And runs to the neighbour town with swifter speed
Than if he went to quench a fire. Being set,
He gapes and sleeps, and studies to forget

b Maximum indicium est malæ mentis fluctuatio, Sen. Ep. 120. vid. ep. 10. et de Tranq. cap. 2. Ωσπερ παῖδας, ῥᾳδίως ἐπιθυμοῦντας, προχείρως δὲ καταλεί. Tovlas. Aristid. Tom. 2. Orat. 1. Vid. etiam Plutarch. de Tranq. c Lucret.

lib. 3. 1080.-Jactor, crucior, agitor, stimulor, versor in amoris rota miser. Exanimor, feror, differor, distrahor, diripior: ita nubilam mentem Animi habeo: ubi sum, ibi non sum; ubi non sum, ibi est animus. Ita mihi omnia ingenia sunt; quod lubet, non lubet jam id continuo, &c. Plaut. Cistell. d Nihil

tam occupatum, tam multiforme, tot actum variis motibus, concisum ac lacera. tum, quàm mala mens, Quint. 1. 12. c. 1. Non horam tecum 'esse potes, non otia recte Ponere ; atque ipsum vitas fugitivus et erro, Horat.-Vid. Plut. de Tran

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