The seuenth Chapter. Whether yong and incontinent men, and finallie anie other sort are to be excluded from hearing of the word of God.
IT should séeme that Aristotle may for iust cause be blamed, when he wold exclude a yoong man fro~ hearing of morall philosophie: for thus he saith; He will heare in vaine, & without fruit, bicause he hath not experience: and that although he haue his right reason, yet is he ouercome with lusts and affections, and so ouercome, as he cannot doo those things that he would: and therfore (he saith) that as his reason is ouercome, so is this learning vnderstood of him ouercome, & that since he is not able to produce the same into act, his labor in hearing will be frustrate. Howbeit hereof is gathered an argument of the contrarie, to wit; that they by this facultie are verie greatlie holpen, which doo suffer their affections to be ruled by reason. Againe, it belongeth to those that be perfect men, to subdue the affections of their mind to reason: and yoong and incontinent men, which haue most néed of amendement, are not iudged méet for these things. These being plucked awaie from hearing, there will be no kind of men left, vnto whom these things will bring anie commoditie. Whervpon Aristotle shall hardlie auoid it, but that this will become superfluous. Eustratius answereth, that there be some men, and those not a few, which are lead onlie by custome to become good; but they cannot procéed therein by an order and waie prescribed, séeing they are destitute of infallible rules, which when they haue afterward procured to themselues by this doctrine, they are most of all established in iust and honest actions, not being now anie more led by customs, but throughlie persuaded by a full assurance of their mind. And there be some, which of a certeine naturall inclination doo flie from wickednes, and desire goodnes; but how those things doo differ one from another, or by what meanes they may, of the good things, which without doubt are manifold, followe the better, they are ignorant by themselues: neither is there anie doubt, but that they which be so framed, may thereby obteine great helpes. 1 And therefore we are not to thinke that the incontinent, and they which be subiect to their affections, shall (as we haue heard of Aristotle ) be altogither vnprofitable hearers: for vnlesse they be wholie without sense, they, when these things are set before them, will at the leastwise knowe, whither they are brought by their lusts, and wil perceiue how far off they are now distant from the right course: & it cannot possiblie be, but that some maner of waie they will be stirred vp vnto better things; wherevpon they may by little and little both be healed and reape commoditie; as we read that it happened at Athens to the most desperate yoong man Polemon, 2 when he had heard Xenocrates dispute manie things of temperance.
Wherfore these things which are here spoken, must not be vnderstood without exception. For sometime there be yoong men so framed by nature, and so amended onlie by discipline and education, that euen by this kind of learning they are able to profit much, as touching outward iustice and ciuill conuersation, which I thinke dooth most take place in them, which being instructed from their youth in the christian faith, doo imbrace godlines from their hart. And this, 3 by a most manifest example did Edward the sixt, king of England, testifie, who without doubt being a yoong man, was euen in his first age most prompt to the exercise of all vertue. The verie which thing also will happen to you, if yée folowe the doctrine of the gospell with that indeuour which you haue begun. Wherefore Aristotle ment not to exclude all yong men vniuersallie; but this did he most regard, to put awaie the obiections which might hurt the woorthines or estimation of this facultie. And this he did, least if thou shalt sée yoong men trained vp in learning to becom at anie time nothing the better, thou shouldest ascribe that vnto the fault of this facultie, as though it were of no estimation, and serued to no vse: wherefore he laieth the fault in the want of age, bicause it is destitute of experience, and is troobled with perturbations of the mind. These, he saith, be the impediments, for which the procéedings of doctrine and approoued fruits of the same haue no good successe. And neither was Aristotle alone of this mind, but Pindarus also, who saith; ⟨…⟩, that is, For light wits or yoong heads want experience: and Homer, ⟨…⟩, that is to saie, For yoong folke are alwaies rash & vnstaid. Moreouer Horace, pronounceth thus of a yoong man, that, Youth vnto vice, like waxe is soone applide, And fierce to those that warning them doo chide. And how wanton they commonlie are, & kindled in their affections, the Comedie giueth a most euident testimonie. Also the histories doo declare, how Cicero was deceiued in Octauius; and how little, Aristotle himselfe could bring to passe towards the reformation of maners in his scholer Alexander of Macedonia, who being alwaies inflamed with excéeding great ambition, did most insolentlie beare himself in prosperous fortune, most foolishlie desired to be a god, and so gaue himselfe to wine, as being droonke he s⟨…⟩ue his most louing friend, and at the desire of an harlot burned the most noble, populous, & large citie Persepolis, which was the head citie of the kingdome, in such sort as it was vtterlie extinct. The like things dooth Plato in his dialog Gorgias speake, when he said, that There be two passages, whereby good studies doo flowe out of our minds; namelie Obliuion, and Incredulitie: for by Obliuion is taken awaie the skill, and experience which are gathered in the memorie; and by the other, to wit Incredulitie, it coms to passe, that we giue no credit to those that admonish vs. But yoong men doo soone forget those things that they haue once or twise séene and had experience of: wherefore they hardlie get to themselues generall sentences and rules. For we cannot obteine those, but by long and continuall obseruation, which yoong men cannot gather by a short time of their life, neither doo they willinglie giue credit to those that admonish them, bicause they are carried awaie by the blind swaie of their affections.