MEMB. IV.
Against Servitude, Loss of Liberty, Imprisonment, Banishment.
Servitude, loss of liberty, imprisonment, are no such miseries as they are
held to be: we are slaves and servants the best of us all: as we do
reverence our masters, so do our masters their superiors: gentlemen serve
nobles, and nobles subordinate to kings, omne sub regno graviore regnum,
princes themselves are God's servants, reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis.
They are subject to their own laws, and as the kings of China endure more
than slavish imprisonment, to maintain their state and greatness, they
never come abroad. Alexander was a slave to fear, Caesar of pride, Vespasian
to his money (nihil enim refert, rerum sis servus an hominum), [3849]
Heliogabalus to his gut, and so of the rest. Lovers are slaves to their
mistresses, rich men to their gold, courtiers generally to lust and
ambition, and all slaves to our affections, as Evangelus well discourseth
in [3850]Macrobius, and [3851]Seneca the philosopher, assiduam
servitutem extremam et ineluctabilem he calls it, a continual slavery, to
be so captivated by vices; and who is free? Why then dost thou repine?
Satis est potens, Hierom saith, qui servire non cogitur. Thou carriest
no burdens, thou art no prisoner, no drudge, and thousands want that
liberty, those pleasures which thou hast. Thou art not sick, and what
wouldst thou have? But nitimur in vetitum, we must all eat of the
forbidden fruit. Were we enjoined to go to such and such places, we would
not willingly go: but being barred of our liberty, this alone torments our
wandering soul that we may not go. A citizen of ours, saith [3852]Cardan,
was sixty years of age, and had never been forth of the walls of the city
of Milan; the prince hearing of it, commanded him not to stir out: being
now forbidden that which all his life he had neglected, he earnestly
desired, and being denied, dolore confectus mortem, obiit, he died for
grief.
What I have said of servitude, I again say of imprisonment, we are all
prisoners. [3853]What is our life but a prison? We are all imprisoned in
an island. The world itself to some men is a prison, our narrow seas as so
many ditches, and when they have compassed the globe of the earth, they
would fain go see what is done in the moon. In [3854]Muscovy and many
other northern parts, all over Scandia, they are imprisoned half the year
in stoves, they dare not peep out for cold. At [3855]Aden in Arabia they
are penned in all day long with that other extreme of heat, and keep their
markets in the night. What is a ship but a prison? And so many cities are
but as so many hives of bees, anthills; but that which thou abhorrest,
many seek: women keep in all winter, and most part of summer, to preserve
their beauties; some for love of study: Demosthenes shaved his beard
because he would cut off all occasions from going abroad: how many monks
and friars, anchorites, abandon the world. Monachus in urbe, piscis in
arido. Art in prison? Make right use of it, and mortify thyself; [3856]
Where may a man contemplate better than in solitariness, or study more
than in quietness? Many worthy men have been imprisoned all their lives,
and it hath been occasion of great honour and glory to them, much public
good by their excellent meditation. [3857]Ptolomeus king of Egypt, cum
viribus attenuatis infirma valetudine laboraret, miro descendi studio
affectus, &c. now being taken with a grievous infirmity of body that he
could not stir abroad, became Strato's scholar, fell hard to his book, and
gave himself wholly to contemplation, and upon that occasion (as mine
author adds), pulcherrimum regiae opulentiae monumentum, &c., to his great
honour built that renowned library at Alexandria, wherein were 40,000
volumes. Severinus Boethius never writ so elegantly as in prison, Paul so
devoutly, for most of his epistles were dictated in his bands: Joseph,
saith [3858]Austin, got more credit in prison, than when he distributed
corn, and was lord of Pharaoh's house. It brings many a lewd, riotous
fellow home, many wandering rogues it settles, that would otherwise have
been like raving tigers, ruined themselves and others.
Banishment is no grievance at all, Omne solum forti patria, &c. et patria
est ubicunque bene est, that's a man's country where he is well at ease.
Many travel for pleasure to that city, saith Seneca, to which thou art
banished, and what a part of the citizens are strangers born in other
places? [3859]Incolentibus patria, 'tis their country that are born in
it, and they would think themselves banished to go to the place which thou
leavest, and from which thou art so loath to depart. 'Tis no disparagement
to be a stranger, or so irksome to be an exile. [3860]The rain is a
stranger to the earth, rivers to the sea, Jupiter in Egypt, the sun to us
all. The soul is an alien to the body, a nightingale to the air, a swallow
in a house, and Ganymede in heaven, an elephant at Rome, a Phoenix in
India; and such things commonly please us best, which are most strange and
come the farthest off. Those old Hebrews esteemed the whole world Gentiles;
the Greeks held all barbarians but themselves; our modern Italians account
of us as dull Transalpines by way of reproach, they scorn thee and thy
country which thou so much admirest. 'Tis a childish humour to hone after
home, to be discontent at that which others seek; to prefer, as base
islanders and Norwegians do, their own ragged island before Italy or
Greece, the gardens of the world. There is a base nation in the north,
saith [3861]Pliny, called Chauci, that live amongst rocks and sands by the
seaside, feed on fish, drink water: and yet these base people account
themselves slaves in respect, when they come to Rome. Ita est profecto
(as he concludes) multis fortuna parcit in poenam, so it is, fortune
favours some to live at home, to their further punishment: 'tis want of
judgment. All places are distant from heaven alike, the sun shines happily
as warm in one city as in another, and to a wise man there is no difference
of climes; friends are everywhere to him that behaves himself well, and a
prophet is not esteemed in his own country. Alexander, Caesar, Trajan,
Adrian, were as so many land-leapers, now in the east, now in the west,
little at home; and Polus Venetus, Lod. Vertomannus, Pinzonus, Cadamustus,
Columbus, Americus Vespucius, Vascus Gama, Drake, Candish, Oliver Anort,
Schoutien, got, all their honour by voluntary expeditions. But you say such
men's travel is voluntary; we are compelled, and as malefactors must
depart; yet know this of [3862]Plato to be true, ultori Deo summa cura
peregrinus est, God hath an especial care of strangers, and when he wants
friends and allies, he shall deserve better and find more favour with God
and men. Besides the pleasure of peregrination, variety of objects will
make amends; and so many nobles, Tully, Aristides, Themistocles, Theseus,
Codrus, &c. as have been banished, will give sufficient credit unto it.
Read Pet. Alcionius his two books of this subject.
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