CI.

PENANCE.

PENANCE is only the punishment inflicted, not penitence, which is the right word; a man comes not to do penance, because he repents him of his sin, but because he is compelled to it; he curses him, and could kill him that sends him thither. The old canons wisely enjoined three years' penance, sometimes more; because in that time a man got a habit of virtue, and so committed that sin no more, for which he did penance.

1. THERE is not anything in the world so much abused as this sentence, Salus populi suprema lex esto; for we apply it, as if we ought to forsake the known law when it may be most for the advantage of the people, when it means no such thing. For first, 'tis not salus populi suprema lex est, but esto, it being one of the laws of the twelve tables; and after divers laws made, some for punishment, some for reward, then follows this, salus populi suprema lex esto; that is, in all the laws you make, have a special eye to the good of the people; and then what 20 does this concern the way they now go?

1. 2. penitence, which is the right word] This probably refers to the English version of Article 33, in which the original Latin' donec per poenitentiam publice reconciliatus fuerit,' is wrongly rendered by 'until he be openly reconciled by penance.' Penitence would clearly be 'the right word' here.

1. 16. it being one of the laws of the twelve tables] The words, as Selden states them, occur in Cicero de Leg. iii. 3, sec. 8; but, like the other laws in the treatise, they are said not to be quoted from the twelve tables; ii. 7, sec. 18.

2. Objection. He that makes one, is greater than he that is made; the people make the king; ergo, &c.

Answer. This does not hold. For if I have £1000 per annum, and give it you, and leave myself ne'er a penny, I made you; but when you have my land, you are greater than I. The parish make the constable, and when the constable is made, he governs the parish. The answer to all these doubts is, Have you agreed so? If you have, then it must remain till you have altered it.

WHEN men comfort themselves with philosophy, 'tis not because they have got two or three sentences, but because they have digested those sentences, and made them their own. So, upon the matter, philosophy is nothing but

discretion.

CIV.

PLEASURE.

1. PLEASURE is nothing else but the intermission of pain, the enjoying of something I am in great trouble for till I have it.

1. 14. upon the matter] i.e. in strict fact, really. See 'Subsidies,' sec. 1, and: 'It was upon the matter an appeal to the people, and to infuse jealousies into their minds.' Clarendon, Hist. i. 485. 'So that upon the matter, in a great wit, deformity is an advantage to rising.' Bacon, Essay 44, Of Deformity.

1. 17. Pleasure is nothing else &c.] This agrees with one of the accounts of pleasure which Aristotle criticises in the 7th Book of the

2. 'Tis a wrong way to proportion other men's pleasures to ourselves. 'Tis like a child's using a little bird, [O poor bird, thou shalt sleep with me] so lays it in his bosom, and stifles it with his hot breath; the bird had rather be in the cold air: and yet too 'tis the most pleasing flattery, to like what others like.

3. 'Tis most undoubtedly true, that all men are equally given to their pleasure; only thus, one man's pleasure lies one way, and another's another. Pleasures are all alike, simply considered in themselves. He that hunts, or he 10 that governs the Commonwealth, they both please themselves alike, only we commend that, whereby we ourselves receive some benefit; as if a man place his delight in things that tend to the common good. He that takes pleasure to hear sermons, enjoys himself as much as he that hears plays; and could he that loves plays endeavour to love sermons, possibly he might bring himself to it as well as to any other pleasure. At first it might seem harsh and tedious, but afterwards 'twould be pleasing and delightful. So it falls out in that which is the great 20 pleasure of some men, tobacco; at first they could not abide it, and now they cannot be without it.

4. While you are upon earth enjoy the good things that are here, (to that end were they given) and be not melancholy, and wish yourself in heaven. If a king should give you the keeping of a castle, with all things belonging to it, orchards, gardens, &c. and bid you use

Nicomachean Ethics, and which he proves to be incomplete by showing that there are some kinds of pleasure to which it does not apply. Conf. Ἔτι ἐπεὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ τὸ μὲν ἐνέργεια τὸ δ ̓ ἕξις, κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς αἱ καθιστᾶσαι εἰς τὴν φυσικὴν ἕξιν ἡδεῖαί εἰσιν. Ἔστι δ' ἡ ἐνέργεια ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῆς ὑπολύπου ἕξεως καὶ φύσεως, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἄνευ λύπης καὶ ἐπιθυμίας εἰσὶν ἡδοναί, οἷον αἱ τοῦ θεωρεῖν ἐνέργειαι, τῆς φύσεως οὐκ ἐνδεοῦς οὔσης. . . . . Διὸ καὶ οὐ καλῶς ἔχει τὸ αἰσθητὴν γένεσιν φάναι εἶναι τὴν ἡδονήν, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον λεκτέον ἐνέργειαν τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ἕξεως, ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ αἰσθητὴν ȧveμmódioтov. Eth. Nicom. vii. 13 (12), sec. 2 and 3.

....

them, withal promise you after1 twenty years to remove you to the court, and to make you a privy councillor; if you should neglect your castle, and refuse to eat of those fruits, and sit down, and whine, and wish that I was a privy councillor, do you think the king would be pleased with you?

5. Pleasures of meat, drink, clothes, &c. are forbidden those that know not how to use them; just as nurses cry, pah! when they see a knife in a child's hand; they will To never say any thing to a man.

CV.

POETRY.

I. OVID was not only a fine poet, but, as a man may speak, a great canon lawyer, as appears in his Fasti, where we have more of the festivals of the old Romans than any where else: 'tis pity the rest were lost.

2. There is no reason plays should be in verse, either in blank or rhyme; only the poet has to say for himself, that he makes something like that which somebody made before him. The old poets had no other reason but this, their 20 verse was sung to music, otherwise it had been a senseless thing to have fettered up themselves.

3. I never converted but two, the one was Mr. Crashaw from writing against plays, by telling him a way how to understand that place, of putting on women's apparel, which

1 Promise you after] promise you that after, H. and H. 2. In S. so originally, with 'that' deleted.

1. 24. that place, of putting on women's apparel] Deuteron. xxii. 5. This text is explained by Selden, after Moses Maimonides, as intended to forbid certain magical or idolatrous rites, in the course of which females appeared in male dress, males in female dress, and as having no reference, therefore, to the representation on the stage of female

has nothing to do with the business [as neither has it, that the fathers speak against plays in their time, with reason enough, for they had real idolatries mixed with their plays, having three altars perpetually upon the stage]. The other was a doctor of divinity, from preaching against painting, which simply in itself is no more hurtful than putting on my clothes, or doing anything to make myself like other folks, that I may not be odious or offensive to the company. Indeed if I do it with an ill attention it alters the case. So, if I put on my gloves with an intention to do 1o a mischief, I am a villain.

4. 'Tis a fine thing for children to learn to make verse, but when they come to be men they must speak like other men, or else they will be laughed at. 'Tis ridiculous to speak, or write, or preach in verse. As 'tis good to learn to dance, a man may learn his leg, learn to go handsomely; but 'tis ridiculous for him to dance when he should go.

5. 'Tis ridiculous for a lord to print verses; 'tis well enough to make 'em to please himself, but to make them public is foolish. If a man in a private chamber twirls his 20 bandstring, or plays with a rush to please himself, 'tis well

characters by male actors. See Works, ii. p. 365, De Venere Syriacâ ; and p. 1690, where Selden discusses it at length in a letter to Ben Jonson. The text was used by Tertullian (e. g. De Spectaculis, cap. 23) and by Cyprian (Epist. 61, sec. 1) in the sense which Selden disallows; and Prynne, in his Histrio-mastix, quotes and endorses both these authorities, and adds reasons of his own against the practice which they and he condemn. See, especially, p. 208 ff. (in the small 4to. ed. of 1633). It is clear that the objections to the practice do not depend only on what the text in question may or may not mean. 1. 1. as neither has it, that the fathers &c.] The objections urged against stage-plays by the fathers were on account of their indecency even more than of their idolatry, and were continued as forcibly as ever at a time when the idolatry had ceased. See Bingham, Christian Antiquities, bk. XI. ch. v. §§ 6 and 9; and, especially, bk. XVI. ch. xi. § 12. Prynne, in his Histrio-mastix, quotes numerous passages from the fathers in condemnation of stage-plays, some of which are clearly open to Selden's remark, while others are not.