Or were, could not, alas! by me be known,
Only, I well perceiv'd, Jefus was one)

He trembled, and he roar'd, and fled away;
Mad to quit thus his more than hop'd-for prey.
Such rage inflames the wolf's wild heart and eyes
(Robb'd, as he thinks unjustly, of his prize)
Whom unawares the shepherd spies, and draws
The bleating lamb from out his ravenous jaws :
The fhepherd fain himself would he affail,
But fear above his hunger does prevail,

He knows his foe too ftrong, and must be gone;
He grins, as he looks back, and howls, as he goes on.

SEVERAL

SEVERAL DISCOURSES,

BY WAY OF ESSAYS,

IN VERSE AND PROS E...

I.

OF LIBERTY.

HE liberty of a people confifts in being governed

TH

by laws which they have made themselves, under whatfoever form it be of government: the liberty of a private man, in being master of his own time and actions, as far as may confift with the laws of God and of his countrey. Of this latter only we are here to difcourfe, and to enquire what estate of life does best feat us in the poffeffion of it. This liberty of our own actions, is such a fundamental privilege of human nature, that God himself, notwithstanding all his infinite power and right over us, permits us to enjoy it, and that too after a forfeiture made by the rebellion of Adam. He takes fo much care for the intire preservation of it to us, that he fuffers neither his providence nor eternal decree to break or infringe it. Now for our time, the fame God, to whom we are but tenants-atwill for the whole, requires but the feventh part to be

paid to him, as a finall quit-rent, in acknowledgement of his title. It is man only that has the impudence to demand our whole time, though he never gave it, nor can restore it, nor is able to pay any confiderable value for the leaft part of it. This birth-right of mankind above all other creatures, fome are forced by hunger to fell, like Efau, for bread and broth but the greatest part of men make such a bargain for the delivery-up of themselves, as Thamar did with Judah; inftead of a kid, the neceffary provifions for human life, they are contented to do it for rings and bracelets. The great dealers in this world may be divided into the ambitious, the covetous, and the voluptuous; and that all these men fell them felves to be flaves, though to the vulgar it may feem a Stoical paradox, will appear to the wife fo plain and obvious, that they will fcarce think it deferves the labour of argumentation.

Let us firft confider the ambitious; and thofe, both in their progrefs to greatnefs, and after the attaining of it. There is nothing truer than what Salluft fays, "Dominationis in alios fervitium fuum merce"dem dant;" they are content to pay fo great a price as their own fervitude, to purchafe the domination over others. The first thing they muft refolve to facrifice, is their whole time; they must never stop, nor ever turn afide whilft they are in the race of glory, o not like Atalanta for golden apples. Neither in

# Fragm. ed. Maittaire, p. 116.

deed

deed can a man stop himself if he would, when he is in this career :

Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas*.

Pray, let us but confider a little, what mean, servile things men do for this imaginary food. We cannot fetch a greater example of it, than from the chief men of that nation which boasted moft of liberty. To what pitiful baseness did the nobleft Romans fubmit themselves, for the obtaining of a prætorship, or the confular dignity! They put on the habit of fuppliants, and ran about on foot, and in dirt, through all the tribes, to beg voices; they flattered the poorest artifans; and carried a nomenclator with them, to whisper in their ear every man's name, left they should mistake it in their falutations; they fhook the hand, and kiffed the cheek, of every popular tradefman; they stood all day at every market in the public places, to fhew and ingratiate themselves to the rout; they employed all their friends to folicit for them; they kept open tables in every ftreet; they diftributed wine, and bread, and money, even to the vileft of the people. "En Romanus rerum dominos +! Behold the mafters of the world begging from door to door! This particular humble way of greatness is now out of fashion; but yet every ambitious person is still in some fort a Roman candidate. He must feast and bribe,

* Virg, Georg. i. 514. † Virg. Æn. i. 282.

and attend and flatter, and adore many beafts, though not the beast with many heads. Catiline, who was fo proud that he could not content himself with a lefs power than Sylla's, was yet so humble, for the attaining of it, as to make himself the most contemptible of all fervants; to be a public bawd, to provide whores, and fomething worse, for all the young gentlemen of Rome, whofe hot lufts and courages, and heads, he thought he might make use of. And, fince I happen here to propofe Catiline for my inftance (though there be thousand of examples for the fame thing), give me leave to tranfcribe the character which Cicero * gives of this noble flave, because it is a general defcription of all ambitious men, and which Machiavel perhaps would fay ought to be the rule of their life and actions:

"This man (fays he, as moft of you may well remember) had many artificial touches and ftrokes, that looked like the beauty of great virtues; his intimate conversation was with the worft of men, and yet he feemed to be an admirer and lover of the beft; he was furnished with all the nets of luft and luxury, and yet wanted not the arms of labour and industry: neither do I believe that there was ever any monfter of nature, compofed out of fo many different and difagreeing parts. Who more acceptable, fometimes, to the most honourable perfons; who more a favourite to the most infamous? who, fometimes, appeared a braver cham

* Orat, pro M. Cælio.

pion ;