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Thus confcience does make cowards of us all:
And thus the native hue of refolution

Is ficklied o'er with the pale caft of thought,
And enterprizes of great pith and moment;
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

Shakespear's Hamlet.

1. Let's reafon with the worst that may befal.
If we do lofe this battle, then is this
The very last time we shall speak together.
What are you then determined to do?
2. Ev'n by the rule of that philosophy,
By which I did blame Cata for the death
Which he did give himself: I know not how,
But I do find it cowardly and vile,

For fear of what might fall, fo to prevent
The time of life; arming myfelf with patience,
To stay the providence of fome high pow'rs
That govern us below.

Shakespear's Julius Cæfar.
1. The gods avert from ev'ry Roman mind
The name of flave to any tyrant's pow'r.
Why was man ever just, but to be free,
'Gainst all injustice? and to bear about him
As well all means to freedom ev'ry hour,
As ev'ry hour he should be arm'd for death,
Which only is his freedom?

2. But, Statilius,

Death is not free for any man's election,
'Till nature, or the law impofe it on him.
3. Must a man go to law then, when he may
Enjoy his own in peace? if I can use
Mine own myfelf, must I of force, reserve it,
To ferve a tyrant with it? all just men
Not only may enlarge their lives, but muft,
From all rule tyrannous, or live unjust.
1. By death muft they enlarge their lives?
2. By death. 1. A man's not bound to that.

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2. I'll prove he is.

Are not the lives of all men bound to justice?

1. They are.

2. And therefore not to ferve injuftice:
Juftice itself ought ever to be free;
And therefore ev'ry juft man being a part
Of that free juftice, fhould be free as it.
1. Then wherefore is there law for death?
2. That all

That know not what law is, nor freely can
Perform the fitting juftice of a man,

In kingdom's common good, may be enforc'd :
But is not ev'ry just man to himfelf

The perfect'it law? 1. Suppofe. 2. Then to himself Is ev'ry juft man's life fubordinate.

Again, fir; is not our free foul infus'd

To ev'ry body in her abfolute end

To rule that body? in which abfolute rule,
Is fhe not abfolutely empress of it?
And being emprefs, may fhe not difpofe
It, and the life in it, at her just pleasure ?
1. Not to destroy it.

2. No: fhe not destroys it

when the dif-lives it; that their freedom

may

Go firm together, like their pow'rs and organs;
Rather than let it live a rebel to her,
Prophaning that divine conjunction

'Twixt her and it; nay, a disjunction making
Betwixt them worse than death; in killing quick
That which in juft death lives: being dead to her,
If to her rule dead; and to her alive,

If dying in her just rule.

1. The body lives not when death hath reft it.
2. Yet 'tis free, and kept

Fit for rejunction in man's fecond life;
Which dying rebel to the foul, is far
Unfit to join with her in perfect life.

Chapman's Cæfar and Pompey.

What

What more speaks

Greatness of man, than valiant patience
That shrinks not under his fate's strongest strokes ?
Thefe Roman deaths, as falling on a fword,
Op'ning of veins, with poifon quenching thirst,
(Which we erroneously do ftile the deeds
Of the heroick and magnanimous man)
Was dead-ey'd cowardice, and white-cheek'd fear :
Who doubting tyranny, and fainting under
Fortune's falfe lottery, defp'rately run

To death, for dread of death. That foul's most stout,
That bearing all mifchance, dares laft it out.

Beaumont and Fletcher's Honeft Man's Fortune.

This Roman refolution of felf-murder,
Will not hold water at the high tribunal,
When it comes to be argu'd. My good genius
Prompts me to this confideration." He

That kills himself, t' avoid mis'ry, fears it;
And at the beft fhews but a baftard valour:
This life's a fort committed to my trust,
Which I must not yield up, till it be forc'd ;
Nor will I; he's not valiant that dares die;
But he that boldly bears calamity

Malfinger's Maid of Honour.
1. I'll make myself in a capacity
By death, to be an object of their juftice;
I'll die immediately, I can do't myself.
2. Your piety avert fo black a deed!
This is a way to make the world fufpect
The worth of all your former actions;
And that they were not births legitimate,
Born from true honour; but the fpurious iffue
Of an unguided heat, or chance How fhall
We think, that man is truly valiant,
And fit to be engag'd in things of fright
And danger; that wants courage to fuftain
An injury? It shews a fear of others,
To be reveng'd upon ourselves; and he

Is

Is not fo much a coward that flies death,
As he that fuffers, and doth fear to live:
Befides, this will enlarge your enemy's triumph;
And in the world's opinion, be granted
A tame conceffion to his worth; nay men,
And with much face of reafon, may affirm,
Ulyffes did not only win the arms,
But conquer'd Ajax.

Shirley's Contention of Ajax and Ulyffes This ftrong defire of death, that hath poffefs'd Your will thus far; does not exprefs the figns Of that true valour, your fpirit seems to bear: For 'tis not courage, when the darts of chance Are thrown against our state, to turn our backs, And bafely run to death; as if the hand Of heav'n and nature had lent nothing else T'oppose against mishap, but lofs of life: Which is to fly, and not to conquer it. For know, it were true valour's part, my lord, That when the hand of chance had crufh'd our states, Ruin'd all that our faireft hopes had built,

And thrown it in heaps of defolation;

Then by those ruins for our thoughts to climb
Up, 'till they dar'd blind fortune to the face,
And urg'd her anger to encrease those heaps,
That we might rife with them; and make her know,
We were above, and all her pow'r below:
Why this, my lord, would prove us men indeed..
But when affliction thunders o'er our roofs;

To hide our heads, and run into our graves,
Shews us no men, but makes us fortune's flaves.

Jones's Adrafta.

What, may not man unlock this cabinet,
And free the heav'nly jewel of his foul?
A wife man ftays not nature's period, but
If things occur, which troubles his tranquillity,
Emits himself; departing out of life,
As from a ftage or theatre; nor passes

Whether

Whether he take, or make his diffolution;
Whether he do't in fickness or in health.
'Tis bafe to live, but brave to die by stealth;
This is the daring ftoick's glorious language:
I was myfelf too of the opinion once;
But now, I find it impious and unmanly :
For as fome pictures drawn with flender lines,
Deceiving almoft our intentive eyes,
Affect us much; and with their fubtilties
Wooe us to gaze upon them; but are found
By killful and judicious eyes to err

In fymmetry of parts, and due proportion:
Ev'n fo the ftoicks arguments are carv'd

With feeming curioulness, almoft forcing judgment;
And carry with them an applaufive fhew
Of undeniable verity: yet well fcann'd,
They are more like the dreams of idle brains,
Than the grave dictates of philofophers.
The wife Pythagoras was opinion'd better;
For moft divinely he forbids us leave

The corps du guard without our captain's licence:
And to speak true, we are but ufufructuaries;
The God that governs in us is proprietary.
A prifoner breaking from his gaol or hold,
If he be guilty, aggravates his guilt;
If innocent, ftains ev'n that innocence
Which might perhaps have brought him clearly off.
'Tis fo with us; our magiftrate, I mean

The pow'r that's fov'reign of this natʼral frame,
Has fent us, Plato fays from heav'nly manfions,
Into this fleshly prifon; here we live,
And muft not free ourselves, but patiently
Expect our fummons from that facred pow'r,
By his lieutenant death: for otherwise
We become guilty of a greater fin

Than parricide itfelf; no bond of nature
Being fo near, as of one to himself.

The

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