by John Donne
VIII. That Nature is our worst Guide.
SHall she be guide to all Creatures, which is her selfe one? Or if she also haue a guide, shall any Creature haue a better guide than wee? The affections of lust and anger, yea euen to erre is Naturall; shall we follow these? Can she be a good guide to vs, which hath corrupted not vs but only herselfe? Was not the first man by the desire of knowledge corrupted euen in the whitest integrity of Nature? And did not Nature (if Nature did any thing) infuse into him this desire of knowledge, & so this Corruption in him, into vs? If by Nature we shall vnderstand our essence, our definition, or reason, noblenesse, then this being alike common to all (the Idiot and the wizard being equally reasonable) why should not all men hauing equally all one nature, follow one course? Or if wee shall vnderstand our inclinations; alas! how vnable a guide is that which followes the temperature of our slimie bodies? for we cannot say that we deriue our inclinations, our mindes, or soules from our Parents by any way: to say that it is all, from all, is errour in reason, for then with the first nothing remaines; or is a part from all, is errour in experience, for then this part equally imparted to many children, would like Gauell-kind lands, in few generations become nothing; or say it by Communication, is errour in Diuinity, for to communicate the ability of communicating whole essence with any but God, is vtterly blasphemy. And if thou hit thy Fathers nature and inclination, hee also had his Fathers, and so climbing vp, all comes of one man, all haue one nature, all shall imbrace one course; but that cannot be, therefore our Complexions and whole Bodies, we inherit from parents; our inclinations and mindes follow that: For our mind is heauy in our bodies afflictions, and reioyceth in our bodies pleasure: how then shall this nature gouerne vs, that is gouerned by the worst part of vs? Nature though oft chased away, it will returne; ‘tis true, but those good motions and inspirations which bee our guides must be wooed, Courted, and welcomed, or else they abandon vs. And that old Axiome, nihil inuita, &c. must not be said thou shalt, but thou wilt doe nothing against Nature; so vnwilling he notes vs to curbe our naturall appetites. Wee call our bastards alwayes our naturall issue, and wee define a Foole by nothing so ordinary, as by the name of Naturall. And that poore knowledge whereby we conceiue what raine is, what wind, what Thunder, we call Metaphysicke, supernaturall; such small things, such no things doe we allow to our pliant Natures apprehension. Lastly, by following her, wee lose the pleasant, and lawfull Commodities of this life, for we shall drinke water and eate rootes, and those not sweet and delicate, as now by Mans art and industry they are made: wee shall lose all the necessities of societie, lawes, arts, and sciences, which are all the workemanship of Man: yea, we shall lacke the last best refuge of misery Death; because no death is naturall: for if yee wil not dare to call all death violent (though I see not why sicknesses be not violences) yet causes of all deaths proceed of the defect of that which nature made perfect, and would preserue, and therefore all against nature.
IX. That only Cowards dare Dye.
EXtreames are equally remooued from the meane; so that headlong desperatenesse asmuch offends true valour, as backward Cowardice: of which sort I reckon iustly all vn-inforced deaths. When will your valiant man dye of necessity? so Cowards suffer what cannot be auoided: and to runne into death vnimportun’d, is to runne into the first condemned desperatenesse. Will he dye when hee is rich and happy? then by liuing hee may doe more good: and in Afflictions and miseries, death is the chosen refuge of Cowards.
Fortiter isse faoit, qui miser esse potest.
But it is taught and practised among our Gallants, that rather than our reputations suffer any maime, or wee any misery, wee shall offer our brests to the Cannons mouth, yea to our swords points: And this seemes a very braue and a very climbing (which is a Cowardly, earthly, and indeed a very groueling) spirit. Why doe they chaine these slaues to the Gallyes, but that they thrust their deaths, & would at euery loose leape inito the sea? Why doe they take weapons from condemned men, but to barre them of that ease which Cowards affect, a speedy death. Truly this life is a Tempest and a warfare, and he which dares dye, to escape the Anguish of it, seemes to me, but so valiant, as he which dares hang himselfe, lest he bee prest to the wars. I haue seene one in that extremity of Melancholy, which was then become Madnesse, to make his owne breath an Instrument to stay his breath, and labour to choke himselfe; but alas, hee was mad. And we knew another that languished vnder the oppression of a poore disgrace so much, that he tooke more paines to dye, than would haue serued to haue nourished life and spirit enough to haue out-liued his disgrace. What Foole will call this Cowardlinesse, Valour? Or this Basenesse, Humility? And lastly, of these men which dye the Allegoricall death of entring into Religion, how few are found fit for any shew of valiancy? but onely a soft and supple metall, made onely for Cowardly solitarinesse.
X. That a Wise Man is knowne by much Laughing.
RIde, si sapis, ô puella ride; If thou beest wise, laugh: for since the powers of discourse and Reason, and laughter bee equally proper vnto Man onely, why shall not he be onely most wise, which hath most vse of laughing, aswell as he which hath most of reasoning and discoursing? I alwayes did, and shall vnderstand that Adage;
Per risum multum possis cognoscerestultum,
that by much laughing thou maist know there is a Foole, not, that the laughers are Fooles, but that among them there is some Foole at whom wisemen laugh: which moued Erasmus to put this as his first Argument in the mouth of his Folly, that she made Beholders laugh: for fooles are the most laughed at, and laugh the least themselues of any. And Nature saw this faculty to be so necessary in Man, that she hath beene content that by more causes we should be importuned to laugh, than to the exercise of any other power; for things in themselues vtterly contrary, beget this effect; for we laugh both at witty and absurd things: At both which sorts I haue seene Men laugh so long, and so earnestly, that at last they haue wept that they could laugh no more. And therefore the Poët hauing described the quietnesse of a wise retired man, saith in one, what we haue said before in many lines; Quid facit Canius tuus? ridet. We haue receiued that euen the Extremity of laughing, yea of weeping also, hath beene accounted wisedome: And that Democritus and Heraclitus, the louers of these Extreames, hath beene called louers of wisedome. Now among our wisemen I doubt not, but many would bee found who would laugh at Heraclitus weeping, none which weepe at Democritus laughing. At the hearing of Comedies or other witty reports, I haue noted some, which not vnderstanding iests, &c. haue yet chosen this as the best meanes to seeme wise and vnderstanding, to laugh when their Companions laugh; and I haue presumed them ignorant, whom I haue seene vnmoued. A Foole if he come into a Princes Court, and see a Gay man leaning at the wall, so glistering, and so painted in many colours, that he is hardly discerned, from one of the pictures in the Arras, hanging his body like an Iron-bound-chest, girt in and thicke ribb’d with broad gold laces, may (and commonly doth) enuy him. But alas; shall a wiseman, which may not onely not enuy, but not pitty this monster, doe nothing? Yes, let him laugh. And if one of these hot, cholerike fire-brands, which nourish themselues by quarrelling, and kindling others, spit vpon a foole one sparke of disgrace; hee, like a thatcht house quickly burning, may be angry; but the wise man, as cold as the Salamander, may not onely bee angry with him, but not be sorry for him; therefore let him laugh: so he shall bee knowne a Man, because hee can laugh; a wise Man that hee knowes at what to laugh, and a valiant Man that he dares laugh: for hee that laughs is iustly reputed more wise, than at whom it is laughed. And hence I thinke proceeds that which in these later formall times I haue much noted; that now when our superstitious Ciuility of manners is become a mutuall tickling flattery of one another, almost euery man affecteth an humour of iesting, and is content to be deiect, and to deforme himselfe, yea become foole to no other end that I can spye, but to giue his wise Companion occasion to laugh; and to shew themselues in promptnesse of laughing is so great in wisemen, that I thinke all wisemen, if any wisemen doe read this Paradox, will laugh both
at it and me.
XI. That the gifts of the Body are better than those of the Minde.
Say againe, that the body makes the mind, not that it created it a minde, but formes it a good or a bad mind; and this mind may be confounded with soule without any violence or inustice to Reason or Philosophy: then the soule it seemes is enabled by our body, not this by it. My Body licenseth my soule to see the Worlds beauties through mine eyes; to heare pleasant things thorough mine eares; and affords it apt Organs for the conueiance of all perceiuable delight. But alas! my soule cannot make any part, that is not of it selfe disposed, to see or heare, though without doubt she be as able & as willing to see behind as before. Now if my soule would say, that shee enables any part to tast these pleasures, but is her selfe onely delighted with those rich sweetnesses which her inward eyes and senses apprehend, shee should dissemble; for I see her often solaced with beauties, which she sees through mine eyes, and with musicke which through mine eares she heares. This perfection then my body hath, that it can impart to my mind all his pleasures; and my mind hath still many, that she can neither teach my indisposed parts her faculties, nor to the best espoused parts shew it beauty of Angells, of Musicke, of Sphæres, whereof she boasts the Contemplation. Are Chastity, Temperance, and Fortitude gifts of the mind? I appeale to Physitians whether the cause of these be not in the body; health is the gift of the body, and patience in sicknesse the gift of the mind: then who will say that patience is as good a happinesse, as health, when we must be extreamely miserable to purchase this happinesse. And for nourishing of Ciuill societies and mutuall loue amongst Men, which is our chiefe end while wee are men; I say, this beauty, presence, and proportion of the body, hath a more masculine force in begetting this loue, than the vertues of the mind: for it strikes vs suddenly, and possesseth vs immoderately; when to know those vertues requires some Iudgement in him which shall discerne, a long time and conuersation betweene them. And euen at last how much of our faith and beleefe shall wee bee driuen to bestow, to assure our selues that these vertues are not counterfeited: for it is the same to be, and seeme vertuous, because that he that hath no vertue, can dissemble none, but hee which hath a little, may gild and enamell, yea and transforme much vice into vertue: For allow a man to be discreet and flexible to complaints, which are great vertuous gifts of the mind, this discretion will be to him the soule and Elixer of all vertues, so that touched with this, euen pride shalbe made Humility; and Cowardice, honorable and wise valour. But in things seene there is not this danger, for the body which thou louest and esteemest faire, is faire; certenly if it be not faire in perfection, yet it is faire in the same degree that thy Iudgment is good. And in a faire body, I doe seldome suspect a disproportioned mind, and as seldome hope for a good, in a deformed. When I see a goodly house I assure my selfe of a worthy possessour, from a ruinous weather-beaten building I turne away, because it seemes either stuff’d with varlets as a prison, or handled by an vnworthy and negligent Tenant, that so suffers the waste thereof. And truly the gifts of Fortune, which are riches, are onely handmaides, yea Pandars of the bodies pleasure; with their seruice wee nourish health, and preserue dainty, and wee buy delights; so that vertue which must bee loued for it selfe, and respects no further end, is indeed nothing: And riches, whose end is the good of the body, cannot bee so perfectly good, as the end whereto it leuells.
These eleuen Paradoxes, may bee
printed: this fiue and twentieth
of October, Anno Domini, one
thousand six hundred thirty and
two.
PROBLEMS
CONTENTS
I. Why haue Bastards best Fortune?
II. Why Puritans make long Sermons?
III. Why did the Diuell reserue Iesuites till these latter dayes.
IV. Why is there more variety of Greene, than of other colours?
V. Why doe young Lay-men so much studie Diuinity.
VI. Why hath the Common Opinion afforded Women soules?
VII. Why are the Fairest, Falsest?
VIII. Why Venus-starre onely doth cast a shadow?
IX. Why is Venus-Starre multi-nominous, called both Hesperus and Vesper?
X. Why are New Officers least oppressing?
I. Why haue Bastards best Fortune?
IS Nature (which is lawes patterne) hauing denied women Constancy to one, hath prouided them with cunning to allure many, and so Bastards de iure should haue better wits and experience. But besides that by experience wee see many fooles amongst them; we should take from them one of their chiefest helpes to preferment, and we should deny them to be fooles; and (that which is onely left) that Women chuse worthier men than their husbands is false de facto, either then it must be that the Church hauing remoued them from all place in the publike seruice of God, they haue better meanes than others to bee wicked, and so fortunate: Or else because the two greatest powers in this world, the Diuell and Princes concurre to their greatnesse; the one giuing bastardye, the other legitimation: As nature frames and conserues great bodies of Contraries. Or the cause is, because they abound most at Court, which is the forge where fortunes are made; or at least the shop where they be sold.
II. Why Puritans make long Sermons?
IT needs not for perspicuousnesse, for God knowes they are plaine enough: nor doe all of them vse Sem-briefe-Accents for some of them haue Crochets enough. It may be they intend not to rise like glorious Tapers and Torches, but like thinne-wretched-sicke-watching-Candles, which languish and are in a diuine Consumption from the first minute, yea in their snuffe, and stinke when others are in their more profitable glory. I haue thought sometimes that out of Conscience, they allow long measure to course Ware. And sometimes that vsurping in that place a liberty to speake freely of Kings, they would raigne as long as they could. But now I thinke they doe it out of a zealous Imagination, that, It is their duty to preach on till their Auditory wake.
III. Why did the Diuell reserue Iesuites till these latter dayes.
DID hee know that our Age would deny the Diuels possessing, and therefore prouided by these to possesse Men and kingdomes? Or to end the disputation of Schoolemen, why the Diuell could not make lice in Ægypt; and whether those things he presented, there might be true, hath he sent vs a true and reall plague, worse than those ten? Or in ostentation of the greatnesse of his Kingdome, which euen diuision cannot shake, doth he send vs these which disagree with all the rest? Or knowing that our times should discouer the Indies, and abolish their Idolatry, doth he send these to giue them another for it? Or peraduenture they haue beene in the Roman Church these thousand yeares though wee haue called them by other names.
IV. Why is there more variety of Greene, than of other colours?
IT is because it is the figure of Youth, wherein Nature would prouide as many Greene, as Youth hath Affections; and so present a Sea-greene for profuse wasters in voyages; a Grasse-greene for sudden new men enobled from Grasiers; and a Goose-greene for such Polititians as pretend to preserue the Capitoll. Or else Prophetically foreseeing an Age wherein they shall all hunt. And for such as misse-demeane themselues a willow-greene; For Magistrates must aswell haue Fasces borne before them to chastize the small offences, as Secures to cut off the great.
V. Why doe young Lay-men so much studie Diuinity.
IS it because others tending busilyChurches preferment neglect studie? Or had the Church of Rome shut vp all our wayes, till the Lutherans broke downe their vttermost stubborne dores, and the Caluinists picked their inwardest and subtlest lockes? Surely the Diuell cannot be such a Foole to hope that hee shall make this study contemptible, by making it common. Nor that as the Dwellers by the riuer Origus are said (by drawing infinite ditches to sprinckle their barren Countrey) to haue exhausted and intercepted their maine channel, and so lost their more profitable course to the Sea; so wee, by prouiding euery ones selfe, diuinity enough for his owne vse, should neglect our Teachers and Fathers. Hee cannot hope for better heresies than he hath had, nor was his Kingdome euer so much a
duanced by debating Religion (though with some aspersions of Error) as by a Dull and stupid security, in which many grosse things are swallowed. Possible out of such an Ambition as we haue now, to speake plainely and fellow-like with Lords and Kings, wee thinke also to acquaint our selues with Gods secrets: Or perchance when wee study it by mingling humane respects, It is not Diuinity.
VI. Why hath the Common Opinion afforded Women soules?
IT is agreed that wee haue not so much from them as any part of either our mortall soules of sense, or growth; and wee deny soules to others equall to them in all but in speech for which they are beholding to their bodily instruments: For perchance an Oxes heart, or a Goates, or a Foxes, or a Serpents would speake iust so, if it were in the breast, and could moue that tongue and Iawes. Haue they so many aduantages and meanes to hurt vs (for, euer their louing destroyed vs) that we dare not displease them, but giue them what they will? And so when some call them Angells, some Goddesses, and the Palpulian Heretickes make them Bishops, wee descend so much with the streame, to allow them soules? Or doe we somewhat (in this dignifying of them) flatter Princes and great personages that are so much gouerned by them? Or doe wee in that easinesse, and prodigality, wherein wee daily lose our owne soules to wee care not whom, so labour to perswade our selues, that sith a woman hath a soule, a soule is no great matter? Or doe we lend them soules but for vse, since they for our sakes, giue their soules againe, and their bodies to boote? Or perchance because the Diuell (who is all soule) doth most mischiefe, and for conuenience and proportion, because they would come neerer him, wee allow them some soules, and so as the Romans naturalized some Prouinces in reuenge, and made them Romans, onely for the burthen of the Commonwealth; so wee haue giuen women soules only to make them capable of Damnation?