Part X.

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ther ; Horfes betake not themfelves to Swords ,• the Eagle buckles not a Breaft- plate againft: an Eagle. No ocher Creatures ufe laftruments of War, their Lirnbs arc their Weapons. Horns are the Arms of thofe, Beaks of thefe, Wings of others ; Swiftnefs to Tome ; BigneB, Smallnefs, Swimming to others; to many their Breath ; no irr.aticnal Creature ufech a Sword, but keeps it felf within the Laws to which it isdehgn’d by Nature; but Man doth not To, more blameable, becaufe more underftanding. You muftwilhfor an end of your Wars, if you would take me off from this feverity. Nor woife than thefe inter¬ nal Dilfentions, is your Depopulations of Ci¬ ties, tormenting aged Perfons, ravilhing Wives, raking away Children from their Mothers and Nurfes,. defiling Beds, Vitiating Virgins, abu- fing Boys, cafling free perfons into Bonds, de- moliniing the Temples of the Gods, digging up the Monuments of the Heroes, triumphing in vvickednefs, and offering gratulatory Sacrifices to the Gods for thefe unjuft adtions. About thefe, without laughing, you conteft in Peace by Argument, and in War with Steel. You force away Juftice by your Swords. HermoJorus is bnnifhed for writing Laws ; Hcrachtusls, bani- ftied for Impiety ; the Cities are deferted of Ju¬ ftice, the Defarts of In juftice. The People have built Walls, as Teftimonies of the wickednefs of the Inhabitants, (hutting up your own Lives. You are all fenced with Houfes ; there are other walls of wickednefs. Enemies within you, your own Countrey-men ; Enemies without you, Strangers; All Enemies, no Friends. Can I laugh, feeing fo many Enemies ? Y'ou think the wealth of other men is your own; you think the Wives of other men are your own. You lay the yoke of fervitude upon free Perfons ; you de¬ vour the Living ; you violate the Laws; you ra- tifie wickednefs by a Law ; you do violence to all fuch as confent not to your Juftice. Your Laws themfelves convince youot in juftice ; for if they were not, you would go wholly unpu- nifhed ■, whereas now you are a little reftrained, and, by fear of puniftiment, with-beld from ft the utmoft injuftice.
There is a third Epiftle of tls to the fame Ptrfon, expreffing no lefs difaffedion to the Efbefians.
Heraclitus to Hermoderus.
Give me notice, Hermodorus, when you in¬ tend to go to Italy I may the Gods and Demons of that place receive you kindly. I dreamt, that I beheld all the Diadems of the whole World make their addrefs to your Laws, and, (hutting their mouths after the Verfian man¬ ner, adore them, they being feated above all the reft. The Efhejians will adore thee when thou art dead , when thy Laws (hall bear a general (way ; thenneceflity will force them to ufe them, for God hath taken away the power from them* and they have acknowledg’d themfelves worthy of fervitude. This I learnt from the more An¬ cient. All /^fra is reduced by the King [of Perjia] and the E^belians are fpoiled. They are not ac- cuftomed to true Liberty and Dominion, and now it is ve|y likely will be obedient, if they are commande^o lament and accufe the Gods for not giving them riches. It is the part of blind
men, not of a good man, to value the goods of Fortune. The Sibyl frequently hinted this, that from Greece there (hould come a wife man into Italy. The Sibyl knew thee fo many ages fince, Hermodorui 'y even then thou wert in being : but the Efhe/ians will not yet fee him whom Truth acknowledged by the mouth of a Woman di¬ vinely infpk’d. A teftimony is given of your wifdom; but the Ephefians difaliow the teftimony of a God : they ftrall fmarc for their infolence, and even now do fraart for it, having an ill o- pinion of us alfo. God punifhech not by taking away riches, he rather allows them to the wicked, as an aggravation of their crimes, that, abound¬ ing in wealth, their offences may be more noto¬ rious to all men ; for poverty is a veil. I wifli • fortune may not forfake you, that all men may fee your wickednefs. But farewel they ; as for you, acquaint me with the time of your depar¬ ture, for I would by all means meet you, and dif- courle with you a U?tle, amongft other things, concerning Laws. I had committed to writing, but that I thought it fit rather to be conceal’d : nothing is more conceal’d than when one man fpeaks to another alone, and efpecially when He^- racUtm to Hermodorm. The ordinary fort of men differ not from broken Pitches, which can hold nothing, but let it run out by babling. The A” thenians , being Autoebtenes, knew the nature of men, that being made of earth , they have crafie minds, and therefore inftituted them in a fecrecy and filence of Myfteries, that they might hold their peace through fear, not out of judge¬ ment, and that it might be no longer hard for them to pradife filence.
CHAP. IV.
His Sickne^ and De&th.
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H E diet which he ufed in the Mountains being nothing but Grafs and HerbSjbrought him into a Dropfie, whereupon he was conff rain¬ ed to return to the City. The account of his ficknefs receive from himfclf, in * two Epiftles ♦ gptB. to Amphidarms. The firft is this. Grac.
Heraclitus to Amphidamas.
I Am fallen fick, Ampbidawasy of a Dropfie.
Whaifoever is in us, if it get the Dominion, it becomes a difeafe. Excefs of heat is a Fever; , excefs of cold, aPalfie; excefs of wind, Colick.
My difeafe comes from excefs of mtfifture. The Soul is fomething divine, that keeps all thefe in due proportion ; the firft thing is health, nature her felf is health ; we cannot forefee what is contrary to nature, but after that it happens. I know the nature of the World, I know that of man ; I know difeafes, I know health ; I will cure my felf, I will imitate God, who makes e- qual the inequalities of the world, committing it to the Sun. Heraclitus (hall not dye of this dif¬ eafe; the difeafe of Heraclitus (hall dye by good diredion. In the Univerfe moift things are dried up, hot things are made cold. My wifdomknow- eth the ways of nature ; it knows the cure of ficknefs: butifmybody be over-prefs’d, it muft defeend to the deftin’d place ; neverthelels my Soul (hall ngt defeend, but being a thing immor-
Lll tal.
HEKAC Lirv S.
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tal, Ihall fly up on high to Heaven. The,i£therial Manfions fiiall receive me, and I will accufe the Ephefians. I fliall converfe, not with Men, bur with Gods ; I (hall not build Altars to others, but others to me. Euthycles fliall not ‘charge me with impiety; but I him of malice. Theyv/on- der, that HeracUtm look’d always fad ; they won¬ der not that men are always wicked. With¬ hold from your wickednefs, and perhaps I fliall fmile. My ficknefs is the more gentle to me, for thatlam notamongfl: men, but alone; and per¬ haps for that my Soul prefageth flie fliall Ihortly be freed out of this prifon, and looking through her fliatter’d body, calls to mind her own Coun¬ try, from whence flie came to encompafs this tranfitory mortal body, which to others feems built upof flegm, choler, purulent matter. Blood, Nerves, Bones, and Flefli ; for unlefs paffions did contrive pains, we would never go out of it.
The fecond Epiftle was to this effed.
To the Same.
The Phyfitians, Amphidamas^ met together, ^ and were very diligent about the cure of my ficknefs, but knew neither Art nor Nature ; they would have it to be this, and to be that, but knew neither. They did nothing butfoften my belly with feeling it, as if it had been a Leather Bottle ; yetfomeof them would have undertaken the cure, but I would not allow it, before 1 had required an account of the difeafe, which they could not give me ; neither were they too hard for me, but I for them. How, faid I, can you be niaftersof piping, when one that is not a piper hath over-niatch’d you ? I fliall cure my felf foon- er than you can, if you will but teach me how a drought may be made of a fliower ; but they, not underftanding my queflion,held their peace, and were much at a lofs in their own Science. I have known others cm ed, not by them, but by chance. Thefe men, Amphidamus, do wickedly, profeffing Arts which they have not, and under¬ taking the cure of that which they underhand not, brin'ging death to men under the pretext and name of Art, doing wrong both to Art and Na¬ ture. It is abominable to profefs ignorance, but more abominable to profefs an Art, of which we are ignorant. What delight take they in lying, but that by deceit they grow rich ? It were better for them to beg, for then tl|ey would be pitied , but now they are hated for doing wrong, and lying. Other Arts are more fortu¬ nate ; thefe areeafily confuted, the better more hardly. Thefe were the men that took compaf- flon of me in the City ; not a Phyfltian amongft them, but all Cozeners and Impoftors, who fell cheats of Art for Money. They kill d Heracleo- dorus^ my Uncle, and took Money for it, and were not able to tell me the caufe of my diftem- per, and how a drought might be made out of an excefs of nioifture. They are ignorant that God cures the great bodies in the- World, redu¬ cing their inequality to an even temper ; that he makes whole thole that are broken, flops fiich as are falling, gathers the difperfed together into one body, poUflieth the deformed, tiiofe which are t he purfues, illuminates the dark with his light.
terminates the infinite with certain bounds, gives form to thofe which have none , gives fight to things void of fenfe, perminates through allfubftance. Striking, Compcfing> Diflblving, Condenlsng, Diffufing; hedilTolvestbedry into moift, hecondenfeth the loofe Air, and conti¬ nually moveth the things above, fetleth thofe beneath. This is the cure ofthe fickly World ;
This I will imitate in my fdf ; to all the reft, I bid farewel.
Thus having demanded ofthe Phyficiansjenig- unt. matically, whether they could of a Ibowcr make ^
a drought, they not underflandinghtm, b.e fliut himfelf up in an Oxe-flall, hoping that the Hy- dropical humours would be extraded by the warmth of the dung ; but that doing him no good, he dyed, having lived 6o years.
Hermippm relates, that he demanded of the Phyfitians, Whether they could fquecze the wa¬ ter out of the inward parts of his body ; which they acknowledging they could not do, he lay’d *
himfelf in the Sun, and commanded his Set- ^ .
vants to playfter him all over with Cow- dung, in*which.pofture he dyed the next dav, and was buried in the Forum. Neamhes oi' Cyzicum faith, i
that they could not get off the Cow-dung, and not being known in that condition by the Dogs, \
they tore him to pieces. f/
But Ari/^o faith, he was cur’d of this dropfie, ^
and dyed afterwards of fome other difeafe, which Hippobotm confirms.
Laertius reckons five of this Name. This
Phiolfopher thejfr/. >
TheAcow//, a Lyrick Poet, 'who writ an En- comium of the twelve gods.
The third an Elegiack Poet, of HdicarnajJ'tts ; A;
upon whom CaUlmacbm hath an Epigram. Jp
The fourth of Lesbos^ who writ the Mace- f*
donick. w
ThefifthaJe^Qr. To whom add, mentioned ^
by Athen^eus , another of Mitylene, a Jugler : and laftly, one of Tarentum, a Lutenilt who, > play’d at the marriage of Alexander. "i
It is reported of Heraclitus the Philofopher, chm.Akx. that he perfwaded Melancomas a Tyrant to lay strom. i. ^ down his Crown. ^
CHAP. V.
His Apothegms.
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OF his Apothegms, and moral Sentences, are remembred thefe: Hefaid, That we ought
to take morecare to extinguiflr Contumely, than the Hottett Fire; And that a People ought to fight for their Laws, as well as for their Walls.
Deriding the Sacrifices, whereby thev thought El.cret m that the Gods were pacifi’d; Thefe, faith he, cleanfe themfelves by polluting themfelves with Blood, as if a Man fiiould go into the Dirt to wafli hinrfelf.
He faith, that he wholly contemned his Body, SutJ. and efteemed it more vile than Drols ; yet would take care for the Cure of ir, as long as God fliould command him t6 ufe it as an Inflrument.
Of all the Difeourfes that ever I heard, none stek Ssr 3. came fo frr as to prove. That Wifdom is fome- thing feparate from all other things ; A folitary Man is either a God or a Beafl.
Even