Page:The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (IA b30323241).pdf/27
though it pleaſe you not to tell me the verie words of the Oracle) that yet no deſtiny nor influence whatſoeuer, can bring mans wit to a higher point, than wiſdome and goodneſſe? Why ſhold you depriue your ſelf of gouernment, for feare of loſing your gouernment, like one that ſhould kill himſelfe for feare of death? Nay rather if this Oracle be to be accounted of, arme vp your courage the more againſt it: for who wil ſticke to him taht abandons himſelfe; let your ſubiects haue you in their eyes; let them ſee the benefits of your iuſtice dayly more & more; and ſo muſt they needs rather like of preſent ſureties then vncertaine chaunges. Laſtly, whether your time call you to liue or die, do both like a Prince. Now for your ſecond reſolution; which is to ſuffer no worthy Prince to be a ſuter to either of your daughters, but while you liue to keepe them both vnmaried, &, as it were, to kill the ioy of poſteritie, which in your time you may enioy, moued perchance by a miſ-underſtood Oracle: what ſhall I ſay, if the affection of a father to his owne children, cannot plead ſufficientlie againſt ſuch fancies? once certaine it is, the God which is God of nature, doth neuer teach vnnaturalneſſe: and euen the ſame mind hold I touching your baniſhing them from companie, leaſt, I know not what ſtrange loues ſhould follow. Certainlie ſir, in my Ladies your daughters, nature promiſeth nothing but goodneſſe, and their education by your fatherly care hath bene hitherto ſuch, as hath bene moſt fit to reſtraine all euill; giuing their minds vertuous delights, and not grieuing them for want of well ruled libertie. Now to fall to a ſodaine ſtraightning them, what can it do but argue ſuſpition, a thing no more vnpleaſant, then vnſure, for the preſeruing of vertue. Leaue womens minds, the moſt vntamed that way of any: ſee whether a cage can pleaſe a bird? or whether a dog grow not fiercer with tying? what doth iealouſie, but ſtirre vp the mind to thinke, what it is from which they are reſtrained? for they are treaſures or things of great delight, which men vſe to hide, for the aptneſſe they haue to each mans fancies: and the thoughts once awaked to that, harder ſure it is to keepe thoſe thoughts from accompliſhment, then had bene before to haue kept the mind (which being the chiefe part, by this means is defiled) from thinking. Laſtly, for the recommending ſo principall a charge of the Princeſſe Pamela (whoſe mind goes beyond the gouerning of manie thouſands ſuch) to ſuch a person as Dametas is (beſides that the thing in it ſelfe is ſtrange) it comes of a verie euill ground, that ignorance ſhould be the mother of faithfulneſſe; O no; he cannot be good that knowes not why he is good, but ſtands ſo farre good as his fortune may keepe him vnaſſayed: but comming once to that, his rude ſimplicitie is either eaſily changed, or eaſily deceiued: and ſo growes that to be the laſt excuſe of his fault, which ſeemed to haue bene the firſt foundation of his faith. Thus farre hath your commandement and my zeale drawne me; which I, like a man in a valley that may diſcerne hilles, or like a poore paſſenger that may ſpie a rocke, ſo humblie ſubmit to your gracious conſideration, beſeeching you againe to ſtand wholly vpon your owne vertue, as the ſureſt way to maintaine you in that you are, and to auoyd any euill which may be imagined.
By the contents of this letter you may perceiue, that the cauſe of all, hath bene the vanitie which poſſeſſeth many, who (making a perpetuall māſion of this poore baiting place of mans life) are deſirous to know the certaintie of things to come; wherein there is nothing ſo certaine as our continuall vncertaintie. But what in particular points the Oracle was, in faith I know not; neither (as you may ſee by one place of Philanax leter) he himſelfe diſtinctly knew. But this experience ſhewes vs, that Baſilius iudgement, corrupted with a Princes fortune, hath rather heard then