=Plutarche= in his booke _De sera numinis vindicta_, reporteth a maruellous and notable historie, of one called =Bessus=: who after he had murthered his father, hid himselfe a long season. But on a time as he went to supper, espying a swallowes neast, with his speare be thrust it downe: and when those which supped togither with him, misliked and abhorred his cruelty (for we like not those men that trouble little birdes and other beastes, because we iudge them austere and cruell) he answered: haue they not (saieth hée) falsly accused me, a great while crying out on me, that I haue slaine and murthered my father. Those which were present, being striken with great admiration, reported these his words to the king, who immediately caused him to bee tormented, and examining the matter diligently, at the last found him guiltie, and punished him as a manquiller of his owne father. Hereof ye may gather what feare can doo: the swallowes coulde not speake, and yet he perswaded himselfe that they vpbrayed him with murthering his father. Euen so many through feare, imagine that they heare and sée many thinges whiche in déede are méere trifles. [Sidenote: Theodoricus imagining that he seeth Symmachus.] [Sidenote: Matth.14.] [Sidenote: Luke.24.] [Sidenote: Stout and coragious men seldom see any Spirits.] =Procopius= in the beginning of the warres of _Italie_, declareth, that as =Theodoricus= satte at meate, after he had put to death =Boethius= and =Symmachus= his sonne in lawe, a fishes head being brought before him, he sawe in it the countenance of =Symmachus= looking horribly, which byting the nether lip with lowring eyes séemed to threaten him, wherewith the King being sore abashed, fell into a gréeuous sicknesse, wherof he afterwards died. Yea feare if it be vnmeasurable maketh vs to abhorre those thinges, which otherwise should be comfortable vnto vs. The apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ may be examples hereof. Who in the night season being in greate daunger in the Sea, when they sawe Christe walking on the water approching towards them wer maruelously appalled. For they supposed they sawe a Spirit, and cried out for feare. But the Lorde came to deliuer them out of that present daunger wherein they were. After his resurrection they were maruellously affraide, and as S. Luke saith, they verily supposed they sawe a Spirit, when in déede he appeared vnto them in his owne body. Therfore the lord comforteth & hartneth them saying: Behold my hands & my féet, for I am euē he: handle me and sée: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye sée I haue. They through great ioy could not beléeue it, but maruelled at it. Héere thou séest, by feare it came to passe, that the Disciples supposed yͤ Lord him self to haue bin a ghost. And therfore no man ought to maruell if we hindered by feare, mistake one man for an other, and perswade our selues that we haue séene spirits, whereas no such were. They which are of stout and hautie courage, frée from all feare,