Page:A Discourse of Constancy in Two Books Chiefly containing Consolations Against Publick Evils.pdf/218

Chap. 11. pos'd and ruffled with the whirlewinds of Warr, and the boysterous stormes of succeeding Tyrannies. For who would wish that this Universe should be like the dead Sea; without Wind or Motion? But there is also another Ornament which I guess at which is more serious and inwardly fruitful. Histories informe me, that better and smoother times, do still succeed storms. Do Warrs molest any people? Yet for the most part they refine and sharpen them; by introducing the Arts, and a various culture of ingenuity. The Romans of old impos'd a heavy yoke upon the world; but withall it prov'd a happy one in the event; for as the Sun chases away darkness from our Eyes: So did that ignorance and barbarisme from their Minds. What had the Gaules or we Germans now been, if the light of that great Empire had not risen to us? A sort of wild and inhumane savages, glutting our selves with our own and Rh