THE LORD MARQVES IDLENESS: Containing manifold matters of acceptable devise; as sage sentences, prudent precepts, moral examples, sweet similitudes, proper comparisons, and other remembrances of special choice.  
No less pleasant to peruse, than profitable to practise: compiled by the right Honourable L. WILLIAM Marquis of WINCHESTER that now is.  Cicero ex Xenoph. 
Nec vero clarorum virorum post mortem honores  
Permanerent, si nihil eorum ipsorum animi efficerent.  
The honour of noble men could not remain after death,  
If their minds should be idle and do nothing.  Scipio. 
Nunquam minùs solus, quàm cùm solus;  
Nec minùs otiosus, quàm cùm otiosus.  
Imprinted at London, by Arnold Hatfield. 1586  
DIEV ET MON DROIT   

Floreat alma diû Princeps precor ELISABETHA.  
R Roscida solatur rutilans ut gramina Titan, N  
E Et radio exhilarat cuncta elementa suo: O  
G Grata velut nutrix sic Anglis numina praebens, S  
I judith nostra (Deo praeside) clara viget. T  
N Nobilis haec valeat, in scena hac, foemina semper, R  
A Ac nectar gratum libet, in aetherea. A  
ANGLIAE   

TO THE HIGH, MIGHTY, AND HIS RIGHT GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN LADY, THE Queen's MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.  
THe traveler (Right gracious SOVEREIGN) having bestowed some time in surveying & observing the people, manners, and state of foreign countries, upon return rendereth a reckoning of his time spent by report of the fruit and effect received by his journey: whereby he gaineth unto himself the credit of knowledge, and giveth unto the hearer direction and comfort of travel. Myself having passed the morning tied of my Time (wherein I should have conversed with the learned for my better instruction) only in the vain disports and pleasures of the field: And now at the Sun setting looking back to view the benefit received thereby, do find the seed of pleasures to render no fruit, & so by defect of learning, ensueth the effect of Idleness, being merely nothing. The profit of which experience, bestowed as a remembrance for the better sort in their younger years, to mingle with their pleasures some exercise of knowledge & learning, may happily produce in them an effect in future time, whereby to conform themselves answerable to their degrees & callings, both for the better performance of their duties unto the State, as also for the administering of justice in the weal public. For a magistrate without learning is like unto an unskilful physician, who maketh the whole sick, and cureth seldom the diseased: or rather more fitly compared with an unlearned schoolmaster, who in steed of instruction giveth correction. For as he seldom well ruleth, who hath not first duly obeyed: even so faileth he right to censure, who hath not in him to discern betwixt right and wrong; the offended, and the offence giver. As Idleness is the mother of ignorance, so is it the nurse of aspiring and disloyal minds. Neither do I infer hereupon the unlearned to be ill affected, but only the idle to be worst disposed. And as the qualities of Idleness are divers, so are the effects accordingly; some end in mischief, some others waste Time without profit, other some give good instruction of reformation: which last of the three, is the whole sum of my travel. For finding in myself the want of those ornaments and good parts of learning which are requisite for the honourable, could wish others not to feed the flower of their years with the vanities of Idleness, but to recompense the benefit of time with some effect of knowledge, to the good of themselves, as example of theirs. For in the perfection or type of man's life, the most that we know is the least part of the rest whereof we are ignorant. My deceased Grandfather (most gracious Sovereign) your majesties late officer and servant, being a Precedent unto his to shun Idleness and to perform their duties with all loyalty & obedience passed many years in Court, as well to manifest the humble desire of his dutiful mind towards his Princess, as also for the instruction of his posterity to hold nothing (next unto the true knowledge and fear of God) of like price, as the inestimable comfort of the good opinion and favour of their Sovereign: whereof hoping, and by sundry assured experiments finding no less from your Majesty towards me, as only proceeding from your highness gracious inclination & clemency, and not of any desert or my part giving cause thereof; am thereby the rather emboldened most humbly to crave pardon, as one by reason of many defects unable to perform that service which in desire I wish, and in duty appertaineth, as chief acknowledging myself greatly bound unto your Highness, in that your Majesty most graciously tendering my long sickness & weak estate of body, would vouchsafe to licence my late absence from so special a cause of importance concerning the proceeding against those unnatural and traitorous parts & practices, tending to the destruction of your majesties sacred and royal person: sorrowing the adverse event of my health at the instant, especially such, as upon so firm an argument or token of your majesties most gracious favour and good opinion conceived, not to be in case by service to perform any thing answerable in desert to the least part of so honourable a credit & fidelity reposed. But (right mighty and Sovereign Lady) like as your Majesty of special grace hath hitherto accepted my willing and dutiful mind in am of action: Even so on my knee I humbly beseech the continuance of so gracious favour, until my state of body will permit the accomplishment (by service) of my humble good will and willingness. And albeit my time spent hath wrought no condign merit whereupon I should presume to make this humble petition, neither doth there proceed thereof any effect of gratuity worthy the view or acceptance of your Majesty: And though discretion forbiddeth me to present your Majesty with the fruit of my time passed, as a remembrance by many degrees inferior and unfit to be offered to so learned and prudent a Princess: yet dutiful good will, not having otherwise to manifest itself upon experience of your majesties former graces, comforteth me of your highness favourable acceptance. Neither might I with modesty presume to present your Majesty with so mere a trifle as the effect of Idleness (for other title or term I may not worthily give it, though in truth it be the fruit of my time best spent, in respect of the residue more vainly passed) were it so that upon return of my travel an journey taken in the vanities of pleasures I had to report of better choice of commodity received. And because Time requireth me to render an account, (as whose Idleness hath been greater than of sundry others) and lest my evil example might withdraw the better disposed from the study and exercise of knowledge, I do confess my error therein accordingly as the title of this Pamphlet giveth testimony, which approaching your majesties presence in so simple an habit, craveth pardon for so bold an attempt, as also becometh an humble petitioner to be admitted to supply the place of his absent and diseased master, who in all humility and loyalty of heart prostrateth himself at your majesties feet, most humbly beseeching the continuance of your highness former favours and clemency, without which, neither he nor his shall be in case to perform such offices as in duty and honour appertaineth. And thus ac-acknowledging myself most bounden unto your right gracious and excellent Majesty, do according to duty beseech the Almighty for the long continuance of your majesties prosperous Estate and reign in all happiness and felicity.  
Your majesties most humble and loyal subject, WINCHESTER.   

To the friendly Readers.  
THIS work is not entitled (my good friends) The L. Marquis Idleness for your eyes to gaze on, or your minds to be amazed at, but as (by your leave) it may be spoken by antiphrasin, so (by your patience) I discover no monster. In showing an unnatural generation, happily you will imagine that Idleness can bring forth no good action, and therefore an unkind issue, to be called by the name of Idleness. But I answer, though your surmise or imagination may engender such a report in the life of the L. Marques: yet (you see) my conception and delivery showeth the contrary, in that I observed the former idle time in reading & perusing the learned and wise, whose sentences and good sayings, I so greatly affected, that I did not only read them, but also committed many of them to writing: which being done only for my own recreation and benefit, I assure you (good Readers) was earnestly requested by divers my loving friends to make the same more manifest to the world, by committing it to the press. In which doing, if I have neither done well, nor satisfied your expectation, blame them that provoked my ewlgation, and deceived your hope, and yet for mine own part I will be excused by the title of my book, which can warrant no more to you, than it afoorded to myself: which is enough: if it keep you only from idleness, and yet I will assure you something more, for you shall hear many wise, learned, and well experienced men, which I have painfully requested to give you some advertisement. And if your fantasies be not over curious, or your minds to scornful, I doubt not but among so many variable blossoms, you may happily catch one savouring flower, if not though it seemeth to be against all reason, that idleness can beget some fruitful travel, yet you shall see a greater miracle, which is, that The dead liveth. I mean that they whose carcases are consumed many years since, do now as it were, viva voce, speak, advertise, counsel, exhort, and reprove, I assure you. I perused them to my no small contentation and delight, not only to be instructed, but also to the end that idleness might not attach me, whose great burden of vanities and suggestions, doth not only surcharge us with the manifold heap of sin, but also with the lamentable loss of golden time, for (indeed) the want of some exercise bringeth us in open question with the world, and in hazard of condemnation, either to be barren of knowledge, or slow of will: for as the slanderer his tongue cannot be tied (though he oftentimes utter follies) so the will of man should not be barren, whereby ill tongues might be occasioned to take hold: and to say the truth, as we ourselves esteem not the knife that is rusty, nor account of the trees that are fruitless, so we must think that if men would not speak ill of our idleness, very Time itself passing by our doors without entertainemet, would accuse our life of sluggishness, or condemn our consciences of contempt, and so we may both stain our name, blemish our creation, and hazard our happy estate, that when the judge of all judges shall hear the crime laid to our charge, our consciences shall be assured to feel the guilt: therefore the great stay of man's life requireth labour, first in searching God's word to know him, secondly in bending of our endeavours for the benefit of our country, last of all by looking into ourselves, and beholding the great filth which most horribly lieth stinking in man's life, which for want of purge doth oftentimes smell of hypocrisy, ungodliness, uncharitableness, treason, devilish inventions and wicked practises, whereof sathan hath great store to plant in the idle soil. Wherefore (my loving friends) I have done this for myself and for you, and though I have not set it forth with profound learning, fined phrases, or eloquent terms, which are expected but of wanton ears, yet I pray you allow of me in mine old plain fashion, in the which if I cannot to your contentation make sufficient show of mine assured good will, pardon my present weakness being under the physicians hands, and I will with all my heart wish you well, and commend you to the most highest. Basing this viii. of November.  
Your loving friend WINCHESTER.   

IN LAUDEM OPERIS HEXASTICON G. Ch.  
Nobilis esto liber, quòd te, tot philosophantes  
Tanta, per antiquos, philosophia beat  
Nobilior multò, quòd tandem nobilis heros,  
Marchio Wintoniae, nobilitavit opus.  
Nobilis es genitus; nutritus nobilitate es,  
Et genus Appiadum nobile, te decorat.   

The Table.  

THe beginning of things. 1  
The history of private men and of towns. 3  
Adversity. 5  
Ambition. 7  
Captains. ibid.  
Covetousness. 8  
Children and youth. 13  
Counsel. 10  
Death. 18  
Discord and variance. 25  
Envy. ibid.  
Evil and wicked men, in which treatise all wickedness is contained. 27  
Fame. 32  
Follie. 34  
Fortune. ibid.  
Friendship and friends. 36  
justice and punishment of God. 39  
justice and justicers of this world, with judges. 40  
Knowledge, wisdom, foresight. 46  
Law and ordinances. 50  
love. 51  
Man and his life. 56  
Mercy and pity to the poor. 62  
Obedience. 63  
Patience. 64  
Peace. 65  
Pleasure. 66  
Pride. 68  
Princes. 69  
Servants. 76  
Slanderer. 77  
Sorrow and grief. ibid.  
Tongue. 79  
Time. 80  
Wars. 81  
Women. 82  
good Works. 86  
World and worldly prosperity. ibid.  
Many pretty sayings. 93    

THE LORD MARQVES IDLENESS.  

The beginning of beginnings.  
THE first homicide of the world was Cain.  
The first that died in the world was Abel.  
The first that was blind in the world was Lamec, as some learned have collected.  
The first that builded was Enoc in the fields of Edon.  
The first physician was Tubalcain.  
The first sailor was Noe.  
The first tyrant was Nemrod.  
The first priest was Melchisedec.  
The first Duke (as some affirm) was Moses.  
The first that was called by the name of Emperor was julius Caesar.  
Thales was the first that found out the pole called the North star to sail by: and the first that found out the division of the year, the quantity of the sun and moon: and also said that souls were immortal. He would never marry for the care to content his wife, and the thought to bring up his children.  
He was asked what God was. 
A definition of God.  He answered; Of all antiquity God is the most ancient thing: for all the ancients passed never saw him take beginning, nor those that shall come after shall never see him have ending.  
He was asked what thing was most beautiful. He answered; The world, because no artificial painting could make the like.  
Again, what was the greatest thing. He answered; Place, wherein all things do stand: for the place which containeth all must needs be greater than all.  
Again, he was demanded what knew most. He answered; Time: because time was the inventor of new things, and that which reneweth the old.  
What was the lightest thing He answered: The wit of man, because without danger it passed the sea to discover and compass the whole earth.  
Again, what was the strongest. He answered; The man that is in necessity: for necessity reviveth the understanding of the rude, and causeth the coward to be hardy in peril.  
What was the hardest thing to know. He answered; For a man to know himself: for there should be no contentions in the world if man did know himself.  
What was the sweetest thing to obtain. He answered; Desire; for a man rejoiceth to remember the pains past, and to obtain that which he desireth present.   

The life of Philosophers.  
THe Philosophers lived in so great poverty, that naked they slept on the ground: their drink was cold water: none amongst them had any house proper: they despised riches as pestilence: and laboured to make peace where discord was: they were only defenders of the common wealth: they never spoke any idle thing, and it was a sacrilege among them to hear a lie: and finally it was a law inviolable amongst them, that the Philosopher should be banished that did live idly: and he that was vicious should be put to death.  
Only Epicurus gave himself to a voluptuous and beastly kind of life, wherein he put his whole delight, affirming there was no other felicity for slothful men, than to sleep in soft beds: for delicate persons to feel neither heat nor cold: for fleshly men to have at their pleasures amorous dames: for drunkards not to want any pleasant wine, and the gluttons to have their fill of all delicate meat: for herein he affirmed to consist all worldly felicity.   

A principality of things.  
THe taste of all tastes is bread.  
The savour of all savours is salt.  
The love of all loves is from the father to the child.   

The histories and lives of private men, together with the report of countries and towns.  
PHalaris was deformed of face, purblind, 
ovid.  and exceeding covetous: never observed any thing that he promised: he was unthankful to his friend, and cruel to his enemy. Finally, 
A tyrant.  he was such a one that the tyrannies that were severally scattered in others, in him alone were altogether assembled: one only good thing was there in him; that he was a favourer of wise men. And in 36. years they never found that any man sat at the table with him, spoke unto him, or slept in his bed: nor that any man saw in his countenance any mirth, unless it were some Philosophers or sage men, with whom and to whom he liberally put his body in trust.  
Perillus being borne in Athens, 
Perillus.  and also being very excellent in metals, came to Phalaris the tyrant, saying: that he would make such a torment, that his heart should remain revenged, and the offender well punished. This workman made a bull of brass, wherein there was a gate by the which they put the offender in, and putting fire under the bull, it roared in manner as it had been a live bull, which was not only a horrible and cruel torment to miserable creatures that endured it, but also it was terrible to him or those that saw it. Phalaris therefore seeing the invention of this torment, whereof the inventor had hoped great reward, provided that the inventor of the same should be put within the bull: and that the cruelty of the torment should be experimented on none other, saving in the inventor: showing himself therein rather a merciful prince than a cruel tyrant.  
Rome that in times past was a receipt of all the good and virtuous, 
Rome.  is now made a den of all thieves and vicious, I fear me least in short time will have some sudden and great fall.  
Cornelia of Rome said; 
A report of Rome long since, and found true now.  You shall see justice corrupted; the common weal oppressed; lies blown abroad; the truth kept under; the Satyrs silent; flatterers open mouthed; the infamed persons to be Lords, and the patiented to be servants: and above all and worse than all to see the evil live in rest and contented, and the good troubled and despised.  
If thou wilt enjoy rest in thy days, 
Diogenes' declaration.  and keep thy life pure and clean, thou must observe these three things.  
First honour God: 
Honour God.  for he that doth not honour him in all his enterprises shall be infortunate.  
Secondly, be diligent to bring up thy children well: 
Bring up thy children well.  for a man hath no enemy so troublesome as his own son, if he be not well brought up.  
Thirdly, 
Gratitude.  be thankful to thy good benefactors and friends: for the man that is unthankful, of all the world shall be abhorred. And the most profitable of these three (although most troublesome) is for a man to bring up his children well.  
Rome never decayed until the senate was replenished with wise serpents, 
Decay of Rome.  and destitute of simple doves.  
As thou hast by tyranny made thyself Lady of Lords: 
Rome.  so by justice thou shalt return to be the servant of servants. Why art thou at this day so dear of merchandise, and so cheap of folly?  
Marcus to his schoolmaster said; 
A schoolmaster his office.  My duty is to see that you be good, and your duty is to travel that your disciples be not evil: for young men on the one part being evil inclined, and on the other evil taught, it is impossible but in the end they should be vicious and defamed: for there is no man so weak, nor child so tender, but the force which he hath to be vicious, is enough (if he will) to be virtuous. For there is more courage required in one to be evil, than strength is required in an other to be good: for to the master it is greater treason to leave his scholar amongst vices, than to deliver a fort into the hands of enemies: for the one yieldeth the fort which is but of stones builded, but the other adventureth his son, which is of his own body begotten.   

Adversity.  
IF there could be found any estate, any age, any land, any nation, realm or world, wherein there hath been any man that hath passed this life without tasting what adversity was, it should be so strange to hear of, that by reason both the dead as living should envy him.  
In the end I find, that he that was yesterday rich, 
Misery in man's life.  to morrow is poor: he that was yesterday whole, is to day sick: he that yesterday laughed, to day weary: he that had his hearts ease, I see him now sore afflicted: he that was fortunate, is now unlucky: he that was yesterday alive, is this day buried in the grave.  
One thing there is that to all men is grievous, and to those of understanding no less painful. Which is, That the miseries of this wicked world are not equally divided, but that oftentimes the calamities and miseries of this world lieth on one man's neck only: for we are so unfortunate, that the world giveth us pleasures in sight, and troubles in proof.  
These are the miseries incident to man. The grief of his children, 
Outward miseries.  the assaults of his enemies: the opportunity of his wife: the wantonness of his daughters: sickness in his person: great loss of his goods: general famine in the city: cruel plagues in his country: extreme cold in Winter: noisome heat in Summer: sorrowful death of his friends: the envious prosperity of his enemies. Finally, man passeth so many miseries, that sometimes bewailing the woeful life, he desireth the sweet death. If man hath passed such things outwardly, what may be said of those which he hath suffered inwardly: 
Inward miseries.  for the travels which the body passeth in 50. years, may be well accounted in a day, but that which the heart suffereth in one day cannot be counted in an hundred years.  
It is not to be denied but that we would account him rash which with a reed would meet one with a sword, 
Rashness.  and him for a fool that would put off his shoes to walk upon thorns: so without comparison he ought to be esteemed the most fool that with his tender flesh thinketh to prevail against so many evil fortunes: for without doubt the man that is of his body delicate, passeth his life with many miseries.  
The wounded hearts oftentimes utter the pains which they feel without any hope to receive comfort of that which they desire.  
He is no man borne in the world but rather a fury bred up in hell, that can at the sorrow of another take any pleasure.   

Ambition.  
IT chanceth often to ambitious men that in their greatest ruff, 
Careless of life.  when they think their honour spoon and woven, that their estate with the web of their life in one moment is broken.  
The desire of men considered what things they procure, and whereunto they aspire, I marvel not though they have so few friends; but I much muse they have no more enemies. 
Blind that they see not their friend.  In things of weight they mark not who hath been their friend, they consider not that they are their neighbours, neither do they regard that they are Christians, but their conscience laid apart, and honesty set aside, every man seeketh for himself and his own affairs, though it be to the prejudice of another.   

Captains and valiantmen.  
Captains that go to the wars should not be cowards, for there is no like danger to the common wealth, nor no greater slander to the prince, than to commit charge to such in the field which will be first to command & last to fight.  
As captains should show themselves in the beginning cruel, so after victory had of their enemies, they should show themselves pitiful and meek.  
That captain is more to be praised which winneth the hearts of his enemies in his tents by good example, than he which getteth the victory in the field with shedding of blood.  
The stout and noble heart for little favour showed unto him, 
favour encourageth forward.  bindeth himself to accomplish great things.  
He ought to be called valiant that with his life hath won honour, 
Valiant.  and by the sword hath gotten riches.  
What greater vanity can there be than that captains for troubling quiet men, 
For evil acts they are gloriously received.  destroying cities, beating down castles, robbing the poor, enriching tyrants, carrying away treasures, shedding of blood, making of widows, taking of noble men's lives, should in reward & recompense be received with triumph?   

Covetousness, and Covetous men.  
THat covetousness is great which the shame of the world doth not oppress, neither the fear of death doth cause to cease.  
The covetous man seeketh care for himself, 
What the covetous man procureth.  envy for his neighbours, spurs for strangers, bait for thieves, troubles for his body, damnation for his renown, unquietness for his life, annoyance for his friends, occasion for his enemies, maledictions for his name, and long suits for his children.  
All naturally desire rather to abound, than to want, and all that which is greatly desired, with great diligence is searched, and through great travel is obtained; and that thing which by travel is obtained, with love is possessed; and that which by love is possessed, with as much sorrow is lost, bewailed, and lamented.  
The heart that with covetousness is set on fire, cannot with woods and bows of riches, but with the earth of the grave be satisfied and quenched.  
God to the ambitious and covetous hearts gave this for a pain, that neither with enough nor with too much they should content themselves.  
Thales being demanded what profit he had that was not covetous, 
Riches tormenteth.  he answered; Such a one is delivered from the torments of his desire; and besides that he recovereth friends for his person, for riches torment him because he spendeth them not.  
Greedy and covetous hearts care not though the prince shutteth up his heart, so that he open his coffers: but noble and valiant men little esteem that which they lock up in their coffers, so that their hearts be opened to their friends.  
Periander had in him such liveliness of spirit on the one side, 
Governor in Greece.  and such covetousness of worldly goods on the other side, that the Historiographers are in doubt whether was greater the Philosophy that he taught in the schools, or the tyranny that he used in robbing the common wealth.  
I am in doubt which was greater the care that virtuous princes had in seeking out of Sages to counsel them, or the great covetousness that others have at this present to purchase themselves treasures.  
Liberty of the soul, and care of goods in this life, never agree together.  
The prince which is covetous, is scarce of capacity to receive good council.  
When covetousness groweth, justice falleth; force and violence ruleth; snatching reigneth; lechery is at liberty; the evil have power, and the good are oppressed. Finally, all do rejoice to live to the prejudice of another, and every man to seek his own private commodity.  
What love can there be betwixt covetous persons, 
Love betwixt covetous persons.  seeing the one dare not spend, and the other is never satisfied to hoard and heap up?  
The heart that is overcome with covetousness will not fear to commit any treason. 
Treason.   
If the covetous man were as greedy of his own honour, as he is desirous of another man's goods, the little worm or moth of covetousness would not gnaw the rest of their life, nor the canker of infamy should not destroy their good name after their death.  
It is as hard to satisfy the heart of a covetous man, 
Insatiable.  as it is to dry the water of the sea.   

Counsel.  
NOtwithstanding thou being at the gate of care, reason would that some should take the clapper to knock thereat with some good counsel: for though the razor be sharp, yet it needeth sometimes to be whet. I mean, though man's understanding be never so clear, yet from time to time it needeth counsel. 
Virtue strayeth where counsel faileth.  Virtuous men oftentimes do err, not because they would fail, but because the things are so evil of digestion that the virtue they have, sufficeth not to tell them what thing is necessary for their profit. For the which cause it is necessary that his will be kindled; 
A remedy.  his wit fined; his opinion changed; his memory sharpened; & above all now and then, that he forsake his own advise and cleave to the counsel of another.  
The world at this day is so changed from that it was wont to be in times past, that all have the audacity to give counsel, and few have the wisdom to receive it.  
If my counsel be worth receiving, prove it; if it doth harm, leave it; if it doth good, use it; for there is no medicine so bitter that the sick doth refuse to take, if thereby he think he may be healed.  
I exhort and advise thee that thy youth believe mine age; 
An exhortation.  thine ignorance, my knowledge; thy sleep, my watch; thy dimness, my clearness of sight; thine imagination, my virtue; thy suspicion, mine experience: otherwise thou mayst hap to see one day thyself in some distress, where small time thou shalt have to repent, and none to find remedy.  
If thou wilt live, 
Government  as young; thou must govern thyself, as old.  
If any old man fall for age; 
Old age should not despise the counsel of youth.  and if thou find a young man sage, despise not his counsel: for bees do draw more honey out of the tender flowers, than of the hard leaves.  
Plato commandeth that in giving politic counsel it be given to them that be in prosperity, to the intent that they decay not: and to them that be in heaviness and trouble, to the intent that they despair not.  
Happy is that common wealth, and fortunate is that prince that is Lord of young men to travel, and ancient persons to counsel. Many things are cured in time, which reason afterward cannot help.  
No mortal man take he never so good heed to his works, nor reason so well in his desires; but that he deserveth some chastisement for some cause, or counsel in his doings.  
The examples of the dead do profit good men more to live well, than the counsel of the wicked provoketh the living to live evil.  
Men ought not in any thing to take so great care, as in seeking of counsel and counsellors: for the prosperous times cannot be maintained, nor the multitude of enemies resisted, if it be not by wise & grave counsellors.  
Thales being demanded what a man should do to live uprightly, 
Spendal's that leave none for themselves are bankrupts in the end.  he answered; To take that counsel for himself which he giveth to another: for the undoing of all men is, that they have plenty of counsel for others, and want for themselves.  
He shall never give to his prince good nor profitable counsel, 
Note.  which by that counsel intendeth to have some proper interest.  
He is not counted sage that hath turned the leaves of many books: but he which knoweth and can give good and wholesome counsel.  
Anacharsis said; 
Corruption to be shunned.  Thou shalt promise me not to be importune with me to receive any thing of thee: for the day thou shalt corrupt me with gifts, it is necessary that I corrupt thee with evil counsel.  
It is easy to speak well, and hard to work well: for there is nothing in the world better cheap than counsel.  
By the counsel of wise men that thing is kept and maintained, which by the strength of valiant men is gotten.  
Ripe counsels proceed not from the man that hath traveled into many countries, but from him that hath felt himself in many dangers.  
It is impossible that there should any misfortune happen whereas ripe counsel is. 
Good counsel avoideth mishap.   
To give counsel to the wise man, it is either superfluous, 
One wise to counsel an other.  or cometh of presumption though it be true: yet I say in like manner, that the diamond being set in gold looseth not his virtue, but rather increaseth in price: so the wiser that a man is, so much the more he ought to know and desire the opinion of others, certainly he that doth so cannot err: for no man's own counsel aboundeth so much, but that he needeth the counsel and opinion of others.  
We ordain that none be so hardy to give counsel, unless therewith he give remedy: for to the troubled heart words comfort little, when in them there is no remedy.  
The woman is hardy that dare give counsel to a man; 
women's counsel.  and he more bold that taketh it of a woman: 
It is meant but of the common sort.  but I say he is a fool that taketh it; and he is a more fool that asketh it; but he is most fool that fulfilleth it.   

Children and youth.  
IT is better to leave unto children good doctrine whereby they may live, 
children's inheritance.  than evil riches whereby they may perish. And the cause is that many men's children have been through the hope they had to inherit their father's goods, undone, and afterward gone a hunting after vices: for they seldom do any worthy feats, which in their youth inherit great treasures.  
It is better to have children poor and virtuous, than rich and vicious.  
To be poor or sick is not the greatest misery, 
A great felicity to parents to see virtuous children.  neither to be whole and rich is the chiefest felicity: for there is no such felicity to fathers to see their children virtuous.  
It is an honour to the country that fathers have such children that will take profit with their counsel: and contrariwise, that the children have such fathers as can give it them.  
The father ought to desire his son only in this cause, that in his age he may sustain his life in honour: and that after his death he may cause his same to live. 
Duty of children.  If not for this, at the least he ought to desire him, that in his age he may honour his head, and that after his death he may inherit his goods. But we see few do this in these days, except they be taught of their parents the same in youth: for the fruit doth never grow in the harvest, unless the tree doth bear blossoms in the spring.  
Too much liberty in youth is no other but a prophesy, 
Liberty in youth.  and manifest token of disobedience in age.  
It is a grief to see, 
Parents great care quickly wasted  and a monstrous thing to declare the cares which the fathers take to gather riches, & the diligence that children have to spend them.  
There can be nothing more unjust, than that the young and vicious son should take his pleasure of the sweat of the aged father.  
The father that instructeth not his son in virtue in his youth, is less blameworthy if he be disobedient in age.  
It is a good token when youth before they know vices, have been accustomed to practise virtue.  
It is pitiful to see, 
Sensuality in children.  and lamentable to behold a young child how the blood doth stir him; the flesh provoke him to accomplish his desires; to see sensuality go before, and he himself to come behind; the malicious world to watch him; and how the devil doth tempt him; and vices blind him; and in all that is spoken to see the father so negligent, as if he had no children: where indeed the old man by the few virtues that he had in his youth might easily have known the infirmities, as vices wherewith his son was compassed.  
If the expert had never been ignorant; if the fathers had never been children; if the virtuous had never been vicious; if the fine wits had never been deceived; it had been no marvel though fathers were negligent to bring up their children.  
Little experience excuseth men of great offences; but since thou art a father, 
Experience the best school. master.  and first a son; since thou art old, and hast been young: and besides all this, pride hath inflamed thee; lechery hath burned thee; wrath hath wounded thee; negligence hath hindered thee, and gluttony surfeited thee: tell me since so many vices hath reigned in thee, why hast thou not an eye to the child of thine own blood begotten?  
It is impossible that the child which with many vices is assaulted, and not succoured, but in the end he should be infamed: and to the dishonour of the father most wickedly overcome.  
It is not possible to keep meat well savoured, unless it be first salted: it is impossible that fish should live without water: it is not unlikely, but the rose which is overgrown with the thorn should whither: so is it impossible that fathers should have any comfort in their children, unless they instruct them in virtue of their youth.  
The Lydes ordained a law, 
Inheritance belonged not to the eldest, but to the most virtuous.  that if a father had many children, that the most virtuous should inherit the goods and riches, and if they be vicious no one to inherit: for the goods gotten with travel of virtuous fathers ought not by reason to be inherited with vicious children.  
I do not marvel that the children of princes and great Lords be adulterers, and belly gods: for that on the one part youth is the mother of idleness, and on the other little experience is the cause of great offences: and which more is, the father's being dead, the children inherit the father's goods being with vices laden, as if they were with virtues endued.  
The instructors and teachers of youth ought to be informed what vices or virtues their children are most inclined unto, and this aught also to be to encourage them in that that is good, and contrary to reprove them in all that is evil.  
The more a man giveth a nobleman's son the bridle, the more hard it is for them to receive good doctrine.  
Augustus' the Emperor said to the senate; If my children will be good, they shall sit hereafter where I do now: but if they be evil, I will not their vices be reverenced of the senators: for the authority and gravity of the good ought not to be employed in the service of those that be wicked.  
What a thing it is to see the son of a labourer, 
Difference betwixt the poor man's son and the rich.  their coat without points; their shirt torn; their feet bare; the head without a cap; the body without a girdle; in summer without a hat; in winter without a cloak; eating course bread; lying on straw or on the earth: and in this state so well given and virtuous, that divers do wish to have such a son.  
On the other side, to behold noble men's sons brought up and nourished between Holland sheets laid in a costly cradle, shaped after the new fashion; they give the nurse what she will desire; if perchance the child be sick they change the nurse, or appoint him a diet; the father and mother so careful and diligent, that they sleep neither night nor day: all the house watcheth: eateth nothing but the broth of chickens; asketh nothing but it is given him immediately. It is a world to see the waste that a vain man maketh in bringing up his child; specially if he be a man somewhat aged, and that hath at his desire a child borne: he ceaseth not to spend so much of his goods in bringing up of him wanton while he is young, that oftentimes he wanteth to marry him when he cometh to age.  
The poor bringeth up his children without the prejudice of the rich, and to the profit of the common wealth; but the rich bringeth up his children with the sweat of the poor, & to the damage of the common wealth: it is reason therefore that the Wolf that devoureth us should die, and the sheep which clotheth us should live.  
Oftentimens' parents for tenderness will not have their children brought up in learning; 
Negligence in educating children.  saying, there is time enough and leisure to be taught. And further to excuse their error, they affirm if the child should be chastened, it would make him both sick and foolish. But what is their end, they become slanderous to the common wealth: infamous and disobedient to their parents: so evil in conditions: so light and unadvised in behaviour: so unmeet for knowledge: so inclined to lies: so envying the truth, that their fathers would not only have punished them with sharp correction, but also would rejoice to have them buried out of the way.  
Whilst the Palm tree is but young and little, a frost doth easily destroy it: so whilst the child is young if he have not a good tutor, he is easily deceived with the world.  
It is impossible that in any city there be a good common wealth, except they be careful for the well bringing up of children.  
The cause is the covetousness of the master, 
Why many noble men's children are wicked.  who suffereth their pupils to run at their own wills when they be young, to the end to win their hearts when they be old, so that their extreme covetousness causeth rich and good men's sons to be evil and vicious.  
The father is bound no more towards his child but to banish him from his pleasures, 
Duty of parents.  and to give him virtuous masters.  
All the virtues that young men do learn, doth not them so much profit, as one only vice doth them hurt if they do thereto consent.  
Children ought not to use any pastime except there be therein contained some commendable exercise: 
Play in youth.  for if in youth he dare play a point, it is to be feared when he cometh to years he will play his coat.  
Play is not forbidden young children for the money that they lose, but for the vices they win thereat, & corrupt manners which thereof they learn.  
Of young men light and unconstant, cometh oftentimes an old man fond and unthrifty: 
What is laid in youth is hatched in age.  of too hardy, cometh rebellious and seditious persons: and of unshamefastness, slanderous persons.  
What availeth children to be fair of countenance; well disposed of body; lively of spirit; white of skin; to have yellow hairs; to be eloquent in talking; profound in science: if with all these that nature giveth them they be bold in that they do, and shameless in that they say?  
Sensuality and evil inclination of the wanton child, 
Sensuality remedied.  aught to be remedied by the wisdom of the chaste master.  
The trees that bud and cast leaves before the time come, hope is never to eat of their fruit in season: so when children haunt the vice of the flesh whilst they be young, there is small hope of goodness to be looked for in them when they be old: for the older they wax, the riper be their vices.  
Master's would correct the child, but fathers and mothers forbidden them. Little availeth one to prick the horse with the spur, when he that sitteth upon him holdeth back with the bridle.   

Of Death.  
O If we would consider the corruption whereof we are made; the filth whereof we are engendered; the infinite travel whereunto we are borne; the long tediousness wherewith we are nourished; the great necessities and suspicions wherein we live; and above all the great peril wherein we die; we find a thousand occasions to wish death, & not one to desire life.  
The excellency of the soul laid aside, and the hope which we have of eternal life, if man do compare the captivity of men to the liberty of beasts: with reason we may see that the beasts do live a peaceable life, and that which man doth lead, is but a long death.  
I had rather choose an unfortunate life and an honourable death, 
What death is better than life.  than an infamous death and an honourable life.  
That man which will be accounted for a good man, & not noted for a brute beast, ought greatly to travel to live well, and much more to die better: for that evil death maketh men doubt that the life hath not been good, and the good death is an excuse of an evil life.  
The dead do rest in a sure haven, and we sail as yet in raging seas.  
If the death of men were as beasts, that is to wit, that there were no furies nor devils to torment them, & that God should not reward the good: yet we ought to be comforted to see our friends die if it were for none other cause, but to see them delivered from the thraldom of this miserable world.  
The pleasure that the Pilot hath to be in a sure haven; the glory that the captain hath to see the day of victory; the rest that the traveler hath to see his journey ended; the contentation that the workman hath to see his work come to perfection; all the same have the dead, seeing themselves out of this miserable life.  
If men were born always to live, it were reason to lament them when we see them die: 
Whom we should mourn for.  but since it is truth that they are borne to die, we ought not to lament those which die quickly: but those which live long, since thou knowest he is in place where there is no sorrow but mirth; where there is no pain but ease; where he weary not but laugheth; where he sigheth not but singeth; where he hath no sorrows but pleasures; where he feareth not cruel death but enjoyeth perpetual life.  
The true widow ought to have her conversation among the living, and her desire to be with the dead.  
Death is the true refuge; the perfit health; the sure haven; the whole victory: finally after death we have nothing to bewail, and much less to desire.  
Death is a dissolution of the body; 
A definition of death.  a terror to the rich; a desire of the poor; a thing inheritable; a pilgrimage uncertain; a thief of men; a kind of sleeping; a shadow of life; a separation of the living; a company of the dead; a resolution of all; a rest of travels; and the end of all idle desires.  
If any damage or fear be in him who dieth, it is rather for the vice he hath committed, than fear of death.  
There is no prince nor knight, rich nor poor, whole nor sick, lucky nor unlucky, with their vocations contented, save only the dead which are in their graves at rest and peace.  
If in youth a man live well, and in age study to die well, and his life hath been honest; his hope is that death will be joyful: and although he hath had sorrow to live, he is sure he shall have no pain to die.  
This equal justice is distributed to all, that in the same place where we have deserved life, in the same we shall be assured of death.  
Cato being praised of the Romans for his courage at his death; laughed: they demanded the cause why he laughed; 
A worthy saying.  he answered, Ye marvel at that I laugh, and I laugh at that you marvel: for the perils and travels considered wherein we live, and the safety wherein we die, it is no more needful to have virtue and strength to live, than courage to die.  
We see shamefast and virtuous persons suffer hunger, cold, thirst, travel, poverty, inconvenience, sorrow, enmities and mishaps, of the which things we were better to see the end in one day, than to suffer them every hour: for it is less evil to suffer an honest death, than to endure a miserable life.  
The day when we are born, is the beginning of death; and the day wherein we die, is the beginning of life.  
If death be no other but an ending of life, and that whiles we live we carry death; than reason persuadeth us to think that our infancy dieth, 
An excellent reason.  our childhood dieth, our manhood dieth, and our age shall die; whereof we may conclude that we are dying every year, every day, every hour, and every moment.  
divers vain men are come into so great follies, that for fear of death they procure to hasten death. Having thereof due consideration, me seemeth that we ought not greatly to love life, nor with desperation to seek death: for the strong and valiant man ought not to have life so long as it lasteth, nor to be displeased with death when it cometh. In such sort therefore ought men to live as if within an hour after they should die.  
If we travel by long ways and want any thing, we borrow of our company; if they have forgotten aught, they return to seek it at their lodging, or else they writ unto their friends a letter: but if we once die, they will not let us return again, we cannot, and they will not agree that we shall write, but such as they shall find us, so shall we be judged; and that which is most fearful of all, the execution and sentence is given in one day.  
Let not men leave that undone till after their death, which they may do during their life; nor trust in that they command, but in that they do whilst they live; nor in the good works of an other, but in their own good deeds: for in the end one sigh shall be more worth, than all the friends of the world. I exhort therefore all wise and virtuous men, and also myself with them, that in such sort we live, that in the end we live for ever.  
Those that visit the sick, 
Good counsel at the hour of death.  aught to persuade them that they make their testaments, confess their sins, discharge their conscience, receive the sacraments, and reconcile themselves to their enemies.  
Many in our life time do gape after our goods, & few at our death are sorry for our offences.  
The wise and sage before nature compelleth them to die, of their own wills aught to die; that is to say, before they see or feel the pangs of death, they have their consciences ready prepared.  
What loseth a wise man to have his will well ordained; what loseth he of his credit; who in his life time restoreth, which at his death he shall be constrained to render? Wherein may a man show his wisdom more, than willingly to be discharged of that which otherwise by process they will take from him?  
How many lords which for not spending one day about their testament, 
The inconniences for not making a wise will.  have caused their heirs all the days of their life after to be in traverse in the law, so that in supposing to have left them wealthy, have left them but attorneis in the law?  
The true christian and unfeigned aught every morning so to dispose his goods and correct his life, as if he should die the same night, and so to commit himself to God at night, as if he hoped for no life until the morning.  
Princes and Lords ought to be perfect before they be perfect; to end before they end; to die before they die; to be mortified before they be mortified: if they do this they shall as easily leave their life, as if they changed from one house to another.  
The most part of men delight to talk with leisure; to drink with leisure; to eat with leisure; and to sleep with leisure; but they die in haste: for we see them send for their ghostly father in haste; to receive the sacrament in haste; to make their wills by force; to use conference so out of season, that oftentimes the sick hath lost his senses, and given up the ghost before any thing be perfectly ordered.  
What availeth the shipmaster after the ship is sunk; what do weapons avail after the battle is done; what pleasure after men are dead: likewise what availeth the godly instructor when the sick is heavy and bereft of his senses; or to unlock his conscience, when the key of his tongue is lost?  
Let us not deceive ourselves, thinking in age to amend, and to make restitution at our death: for it is not the point of wise men, nor of good Christians to desire so much time to offend, and yet will never spy any time to amend.  
Would to God that the third part of time which men do occupy in sin were employed about the meditation of death; and the cares which they have to accomplish their fleshly lusts were spent in bewailing their filthy sins.  
All worldlings do willingly sin upon hope only in age to amend, and at death to repent: but they that in this hope sin, what certainty have they of amendment, and assurance to have long warning ere they die, sith in number there are more young than old which die?  
The omnipotency of the divine mercy considered the space of an hour sufficeth, 
Repentance.  yea too much to repent us of our wicked life: but yet I counsel all, sith the sinner for his repentance taketh but one hour, that it be not the hour too late.  
The sighs and repentance which proceedeth from the bottom of the heart, 
Repentance.  do penetrate the high heavens: but those which come of necessity do not pierce the ceiling of the house.  
What wrong doth God offer unto us when he calleth us away: 
The benefit of death.  seeing from an old decayed house he is to change us to a new builded palace?  
What other thing is the grave but a strong fort, 
The grave.  wherein we shut ourselves from the assaults of life, and broils of fortune: for we ought to be more desirous of that we find in death, than of that we leave in life.  
Two things cause men loath to die: the love they have to that they leave, or else the fear of that they deserve.  
Now I enter into the field, not where of the wild beasts I shall be assaulted: but of the hungry worms devoured.  
We ought not to lament the death allotted, but the life that is wicked: that man is very simple that dreadeth death, for fear to lose the pleasures of life.  
There is nothing that shorteneth more the life of man, than vain hope and idle thoughts.  
The great estimation that we have of this life causeth that death seemeth to us sudden, and that the life is overtaken by unwary death, but this is a practice of the children of vanity: for that by the will of God death visiteth us, and against the will of man life forsaketh us.  
To the stout hearts and fine wits this is a continual torment and endless pain, and a worm that alway gnaweth, to call to mind that he must lose the joyful life which he so entirely loved, and taste the fearful death that he so greatly abhorred.  
O cursed and wicked world, thou that sufferest things never to remain in one state! for when we are in most prosperity, than thou with death dost persecute us most cruelly.  
Death is a patrimony which successively is inherited; but life is a right which daily is surrendered: for death accounteth us so much his own, that oftentimes unwares he cometh to affalt us: and life taketh us such strangers, that oftentimes we not doubting thereof vanisheth away.  
When death hath done her office, what difference is there between the fair and the fowl in the grave?  
The man which is laden with years; 
When death is to be desired.  tormented with diseases; pursued with enemies; forgotten of his friends; visited with mishaps; charged with evil will and poverty, is not to demand long life, but rather to embrace death.  
Death is that from whence youth cannot fly a foot, and from whence age cannot escape on horseback.   

Discord, Enmity, and Variance.  
FOr all that we can see, hear, or travel, and all that we can do, we did never see nor hear tell of men that have lacked enemies. For either they be vicious or virtuous: and if they be vicious and evil, they are hated of the virtuous; if they be good and virtuous, they are continually hated and persecuted of the evil.  
In great armies the discord that among them arise doth more harm, 
Discord in armies.  than the enemies against whom they fight.  
Many vain men do raise dissensions and quarrels among people, thinking that in troubled water they should augment their estate, whereas in short space they do not only lose their hope of that they sought, but are put out of that they possessed. 
Dispossessed.  For it is not only reasonable but also most just, that they by experience feel that, which their blind malice will not suffer them to know.   

Envy.  
AGainst envy is no fortress, nor cave to hide, nor high hill to mount on, nor thick wood to shadow in, nor ship to scape in, nor horse to bear away, nor money to redeem us.  
Envy is so venomous a serpent, that there was never mortal man among mortals that could scape from the biting of her tooth; the scratching of her nails; defiling of her feet; and the casting of her poison.  
Envy is so envious, that to them which of her are most denied and set farthest off, she giveth most cruel strokes with her feet.  
The malady of envy rankleth to death, 
Stingeth to death.  and the medicine that is applied will not assure life.  
I cannot determine which is the best, or to say more properly, which is the worst; extreme misery without the danger of fortune, or extreme prosperity that is always threatened to fall.  
I had rather mine enemies had envy at my prosperity, than my friends at my poverty.  
It is hard to give a remedy against envy, sith all the world is full thereof.  
We see that we be the sons of envy, & we live with envy, and he that leaveth most riches, leaveth the greatest envy.  
The riches of rich men is the seed of envy to the poor; and because the poor man lacketh and the rich hath too much, causeth discord among the people.  
There were two Greeks, 
Homer.  the one Achilles, the other Thyestes'; the which Achilles being extreme rich, was persecuted with envy; the other which was Thyestes' sore noted of malice, but no man envied at him.  
I had rather be Achilles with his envy, than Thyestes' without it.  
And in case all do us damage with envy, yet much more harm doth a friend than an enemy: for of mine envious enemy I will beware, and for fear I will withdraw, but my friend with his amity will beguile me, and I by my fidelity shall not mistrust it.  
Among all mortal enemies there is none worse than a friend that is envious of my felicity.  
Honour, virtue, and riches in a man are but a brand to light envy to all the world.  
Thales being asked when the envious man was quiet; he answered, When he seethe his enemy dead, or utterly undone: for truly the prosperity of a friend is a sharp knife to the envious heart.  
The outward malicious word is a token of the inward envious heart.  
What friendship can there be amongst envious men, seeing the one purchaseth, and the other possesseth.   

Evil and wicked men, with their vices.  
THe evil men do offend us more which we find, than doth the good men which we lose: for it is great pity to see the good and virtuous men die, but I take it to be more sorrow to see the evil and vicious men live. The good man though he die, liveth; the evil though he live, dieth.  
Let us compare the travels which we suffer of the elements, with those which we endure of the vices, and we shall see that little is the peril we have in the sea and the land, in respect of that which increaseth of our evil life.  
Is not he in more danger that falleth through malice into pride, than he which by chance falleth from a high rock: is not he who with envy is persecuted in more danger, than he that with a stone is wounded: are not they in more peril that live among vicious men, than others that live among brute and cruel beasts? Do not those which are tormented with the fire of covetousness suffer greater danger than those which live under mount Aetna? Finally they be in greater perils which with high imaginations are blinded, than the trees which with importunate winds are shaken.  
trajan the emperor demanding of Plutarch why there were more evil than good, and more that embraced vices, than followed virtues; 
The reason why vice is more followed than virtue.  answered, As our natural inclination is more given to lasciviousness and negligence, than to chastity and abstinence; so the men which do enforce themselves to follow virtue are few, and those which give slack the reins to vices, are many. And this proceedeth that men do follow men, and that they suffer not reason to follow reason.  
The remedies which the world giveth for the troubles, certainly are greater travels than the travels themselves: so that they are salves which do not heal our wounds, but rather burn our flesh.  
Do you not know that extreme hunger causeth hests to devour with their teeth the thing that was bred in their entrails: 
As Herennius did by his master Tully  by experience we see that the worms devour the timber wherein they were bred, and the moths the clothes wherein they were bred: and so sometimes a man beingeth him up in his house which afterwards taketh his honour and life from him.  
As the shamefast man should not be denied in any his requests being honest, so the shameless and importunate man should be denied whatsoever he demandeth.  
The ill rest and conversation of them that live, cause us to sigh for the company of them that be dead.  
universally the noble heart can endure all travels of man's life unless it be to see a good man decay, and the wicked to prosper, the which no valiant heart can abide, neither tongue dissemble.  
Of right ought that common wealth to be destroyed which once hath been the flower of all virtues, 
Vices.  and afterward becometh most abominable and defiled with all vices.  
If the evil live, he is sure to fall; if the good die not, we doubt whether ever he shall come to honour.  
The wickedness of children are sword that pass through the hearts of their fathers.  
Proud and stout hearts obtaining that which they do desire, 
Pride.  immediately begin to esteem it as nothing.  
Tyrannous hearts have never regard to the honour of another, 
Tyranny.  until they have obtained their wicked desires.  
The hearts that be proud are most commonly blinded, 
Proud hearts.  proud and ambitious hearts know not what will satisfy them.  
If thou be given to ambition, 
Ambition, prodigality, and pride.  honour may and will deceive thee; if to prodigality, covetousness often begnileth thee; if to pride, all the world will laugh thee to scorn in such fort; that they will say, thou followest will and not reason; thine own opinion rather than the council of another; embracing flatterers rather than repelling the virtuous, for that most sorts had rather be commended with lies, than reproved with truth.  
That man which is brought up in debates, 
A quarrels.  dissentitions and strife, all his felicity consisteth in burning, destroying and bloodshedding: such works for the most part proceed not from a creature nourished among men on the earth, but rather of one that hath been brought up among the infernal furies of hell.  
Where vices have reigned long time in the heart, 
Vices.  there death only and no other hath authority to pluck up the roots.  
To whom is he more like which with his tongue blazeth virtues, and employeth his deeds to all vices, than to the man that in one hand holdeth poison to take away life; and in the other treacle to resist death.  
I have mused which of these two are greater; 
None bolder than blind bayards.  the duty the good have to speak against the evil, or else the audacity the evil have to speak against the good: for in the world there is no brute beast so hardy, as the evil man is that hath lost his fame.  
I would all men would call this to memory, that among evil men the chiefest evil is, that after they have forgotten themselves to be men, and exiled both truth and reason, with all their might they go against truth with their words, and against good deeds with their tongues.  
Though it be evil to be an evil man, yet it is much worse not to suffer another to be good, which above all things is to be abhorred, and not to be suffered.  
Truly the shameless man feeleth not so much a great stripe of correction, 
The shameless man.  as the gentle heart doth a sharp word of admonition.  
In the man that is evil there is nothing more easier than to give good counsel, and there is nothing more harder than to work well.  
Under the crystal stone lieth oftentimes a dangerous worm; in the fair wall is nourished the venomous coluber; within the middle of the white tooth is engendered grief to the gums; in the finest cloth is the moth soonest found; and the most fruitful tree by worms doth soon perish: so under the clean body and fair countenance are hid many and abominable vices.  
Truly not only to children that are not wise, 
Beauty sinneth.  but to all other which are light and frail, beauty is nothing else but the mother of all vices, and the hinderer of all virtues.  
There is nothing more superfluous in man and less necessary than the beauty of the body: 
Beauty superfluous.  for whether we be fair or fowl, we are nothing the more beloved of God, or hated of wise men.  
The man of a pleasant tongue and evil life is he, which with impostumes undoth the common wealth.  
Sensuality maketh us inferior to beasts, 
Sensuality.  and reason maketh us superior to men.  
He that knoweth most the course of the elements is not called wise; but he which knoweth least the vices of this world: for the good philosopher profiteth more by not knowing the evil, than by learning the good.  
quarrelers and malicious persons will have their words by weight and measure, 
quarrelers.  but the virtuous and patiented men regard the intentions.  
Men naturally desire honour in their life, 
How men shall leave a good memory behind them.  and memorieiss after death; therefore I say as they come and attain thereunto by high, noble, and heroical facts: so memory left by the good and legitimate children. For the children that are borne in adultery are begotten in sin: and that memory is infamous.  
Adulterers are not only taken among Christians for offenders, 
Adulterers.  but also among the gentiles they are counted infamous. If the gentiles feared infamy, the Christians ought to fear both infamy and pain.  
Men are so evil and wicked, that they behold to the uttermost the offences of an other, but will not hear the faults of himself.  
It is a natural thing, that when a man hath committed any vice, forthwith it repenteth him of his deed, and so again after his new repentance he turneth to his old vices.  
Where the soul doth not show herself mistress, 
Man a beast.  it wanteth but little, but that the man remaineth a beast.  
The evil do refrain more from vice for fear of punishment, than for any desire they have of amendment.  
The Romans did not permit that liars nor deceivers should be credited by their oaths, 
Liars and deceivers.  neither would they permit or suffer them to swear.  
The simple man slayeth but one man with his sword of wrath, 
Illworks.  but the sage killeth many by the ill example of his life.  
There is no man by his eloquence may have such renown, 
Eloquent men.  but in the end may lose it by his evil life: for he is unworthy to live amongst men, whose words of all are approved, and his works of all are condemned.  
There is no beard so bare shaven, but that it will grow again: I mean there is no man of so honest a life, but if a man make inquisition he may find some spots therein.  
Oftentimes they say they have been on pilgrimage at some devout Saint that is dead, 
Privy fornication or carnal pilgrimage.  when indeed they have been embracing the body of some fair harlot alive.   

Of Fame and Infamy.  
THe infamy of the slanderous shall never die: for he never lived to die well.  
To die well doth cover an evil fame, and to make an end of an evil life doth begin a good fame.  
When a noble man shall adventure to hazard his person and his goods, he ought to do it for a matter of great importance: for more defamed is he that overcometh a poor labourer, than he which is overcome of a sturdy knight.  
The loss of children and temporal goods cannot be called loss, if the life be safe, and renown remain undefiled.  
Of the good man there is but a short memory of his goodness: if he be evil his infamy shall never have end.  
If he deserve great infamy which worketh evil in his life, truly he deserveth much more, which traveleth to bring that evil in ure, that shall continue after his death: for man's malice doth rather pursue the evil, which the wicked do invent, than the good which virtuous man do begin.  
Noble hearts ought little to efteeme the increase of their riches, and ought greatly to esteem the perpetuity of their good name.  
The good life of the child that is alive keepeth the renown of the father that is dead.  
The glory of the scholar always redoundeth to the honour and praise of the master.  
First, 
What is required in good tutors. 40. years old.  that he be forty years of age, because the master that is young is ashamed to command: if he be aged he is not able to correct.  
Secondly, 
Honest.  he ought to be honest, and that not only in pureness of conscience, but in the outward appearance and cleanness of life: for it is impossible that the child be honest, if the master be dissolute.  
Thirdly, 
True.  they ought to be true in words and deeds: for the mouth that is always full of lies ought not by reason to be a teacher of the truth.  
Fourthly, 
Liberal.  they ought of nature to be liberal: for oftentimes the covetousness of masters maketh and causeth the hearts of princes to be greedy and covetous.  
Fiftly, 
Moderate.  they ought to be moderate in words, and very resolute in sentences: so that they ought to teach the children to speak little, and to hearken much: for it is a great virtue in a prince or noble man to hear with patience, and to speak with wisdom.  
Sixtly, 
Wise.  they ought to be wise and temperate, so that their gravity may restrain the lightness of their scholars: for there can be no greater plagues to a realm than princes to be young, and their masters light.  
It behoveth also that they be learned both in divine and human letters, 
Learned.  in such sort that that which they teach princes by word, they may show it by writing, to the end they may put the same in ure: for men's hearts are sooner moved by the example of those that are past, than by the words of them that are present.  
Also he ought not to be given to vices of the flesh: 
Continent.  for as they are young and naturally given to the flesh, they have no strength to abide chaste, neither wisdom to beware of the suares: it is necessary therefore that the master be pure and honest; for the disciple shall hardly be chaste, if the master be vicious.  
They ought to have good conditions, 
Good conditions.  because noble men's children being daintily brought up, are more prone to learn evil than good conditions: the which their masters ought to reform more by good conversation than by sharp correction: for it chanceth oftentimes where masters be cruel, the scholars be not merciful.  
Noble men never won renown for the pleasures they had in vices, 
Renown.  but for the travels they took in virtue.   

Follie and foolish men, with their vanities.  
IT is a sign of little wisdom and great folly for a man to answer suddenly to every question.  
As the wise man being demanded maketh a slow and grave answer: so the simple and foolish man being asked, answereth quickly and lightly.  
The vanity of the common people is of such a quality that it followeth new inventions, and despiseth ancient customs.   

Fortune.  
IF all falls were alike, all would be cured with one salve; but some fall on their feet; some on their sides; others stumble and fall not; and others fall down right, but some do give them a hand: I mean some to fall from their estate, and lose no more but their substance; others fall, and for very sorrow lose not only their goods, but their life withal; others there are which neither lose their life nor their goods, but their honour only, and so according to the discretion of fortune, the more they have, the more still they take from them.  
It is greatly to be mused at, 
He that decayeth loseth goods and friends.  that fortune when she doth begin to overthrow a poor man, doth not only take all that he hath from him, but also those which succour him, so that the poor man is bound more to lament his friends hurt than his own lost.  
The afflicted man doth most desire the change of fortune, and the thing which the prosperous man doth most abhor, is to think that fortune is mutable: for the unfortunate man hopeth for every change of fortune to be made better, and the wealthy man feareth through every change to be deprived of his house and livings.  
The sage prince and captain in the wars should not rashly hazard his person, nor lightly or unadvisedly put his life in the hands of fortune.  
Sith fortune is a mistress in all things, and that to her they do impute both good and evil works; he alone may be called a princely man, who for no contrariety of fortune is overcome; for truly that man is of a stout courage, whose heart is not vanquished by the force of fortune.  
Sith all men naturally desire to be happy, 
Happy.  he alone amongst others may be called happy, of whom they may truly say; He gave good doctrine to live, and least good example to die.  
Gentle hearts do alter greatly, when they are advertised of any sudden mishap.  
I think him happy, who hath his body healthful, and his heart at ease.  
The misfortunes that by our folly do chance if we have cause to lament them, 
Misfortune.  we ought also to have reason to dissemble them.  
I think him happy, who hath his body healthful, and his heart at ease.  
Vbi multum de intellectu, 
Aristotle.  ibi parum de fortuna: Whereas is much knowledge, commonly there is little wealth.  
It is not good for a man to hazard that in the hands of fortune, which a man may compass by friendship.  
The unlucky man were better be with the dead, than remain here with the living.  
It is commonly seen, that when fortune exalteth men of low estate to high degree, they presume much, and know little, and much less what they are worth.   

Of Friendship and Friends.  
THat only is true friendship where the bodies are two, and the wills one.  
I account that suspicious friendship where the hearts are so divided, that the wills are severed: for there are divers great friends in words which dwell but ten houses asunder, and yet have their hearts ten miles distant.  
The man that with words only comforteth (in effect being able to remedy) declareth himself to have been a feigned friend in times past, and showeth that a man ought not to take him for a faithful friend in time to come.  
If hitherto thou hast taken me for thy neighbour, I beseech thee from henceforth take me for an husband in love; for a father in counsel; for a brother in service; for an advocate in the Senate; for a friend in heart.  
In the inconveniences of our friends if we have no faculty or might to remedy it, at the least we are bound to bewail it.  
Thy anguish and grief doth so torment me, that if God had given power to woeful men to departed with their sorrows, as he hath given power to the rich to departed with their goods; by the faith I own unto God, as I am the greatest of thy friends, so would I be he that should take most part of thy griefs.  
I see not why mishaps ought patiently to be suffered, but because in those we are to try our faithful friends.  
In battle the valiant man is known; in tempestuous storms, the Pilot; by the touchstone gold is tried; and in adversity a friend is known.  
If true friends cannot do that which they ought, yet they accomplish it in doing that which they can.  
He that promiseth and is long in fulfilling, is but a slack friend: he is much better that denieth forthwith, because he doth not deceive him that asketh.  
There is nothing more noisome than to judge a contention betwixt two friends: for to judge between two enemies, the one remaineth a friend; but to judge between two friends, the one is made an enemy.  
In one thing only men have licence to be negligent, that is, in choosing of friends. Slowly ought thy friends to be chosen, and never after for any thing to be forsaken.  
The griefs that lie buried in the woeful heart, 
Grief to be revealed to none but to faithful friends.  ought not to be communicated but to a faithful friend.  
I do not give thee licence that thy thought be suspicious of men, sith thou of my heart art made a faithful friend: for if unconstant fortune do trust me to gather the grape, be thou assured thou shalt not want of the wine.  
Two things are to be respected, not to revenge thyself of thine enemies, neither to be unthankful to thy friend.  
He possesseth much which hath good friends: for many aid their friends when they would have helped them more if they could, for the true love is not wearied to love, nor ceaseth not to profit.  
One friend can do no more for an other, than to offer him his person and to departed with his goods.  
It is a general rule among the physicians that the medicines do not profit the sick, unless they first take away the oppilation of the stomach; even so no man can speak to his friend as he ought, unless before he show what thing grieveth him.  
The heart never receiveth such joy 
joy..  as when he seethe himself with his desired friend.  
Friends for their true friends ought willingly to shed their blood, and in their behalf without demanding, they ought also to spend their goods.  
The pain is greater to be void of assured friends, than assault is dangerous of cruel enemies.  
Our chests and hearts ought always to be open to our friends.  
Friendship that is earnest requireth daily communication or visitation. A man ought not in any affairs to be so occupied that it be a lawful let not to communicate or write unto his friend.  
Where perfect love is not, there wanteth always faithful service: and for the contrary, he that perfectly loveth, assuredly shall be served. I have been, am, and will be thine, therefore thou shalt do me great injury if thou be not mine.  
I have not seen any to possess so much; to be worth so much; to know so much; nor in all things to be so mighty, but that one day he shall need his poor friend.  
The man that loveth with his heart, 
What a true friend is, displayed.  neither in absence forgetteth, nor in presence becometh negligent; neither in prosperity he is proud, nor yet in adversity abject; he neither serveth for profit, nor loveth for gain: and finally, he defendeth the cause of his friend, as if it were his own.  
We ought to use friends for 4. causes.  
1 We ought to have the company of friends to be conversant 
Conversation  withal: for according to the troubles of this life there is no time so pleasantly consumed, as in the conversation of an assured friend.  
2 We ought to have friends to whom we may disclose the secrets 
Open our secrets.  of our heart: for it is much comfort to the woeful heart to declare to his friend his doubts, if he doth perceive that he doth feel them indeed.  
3 To help 
Help necessities.  us in our adversities; for little profiteth my heart in tears to bewail, unless that afterward in deed he will take pains to ease him.  
4 We ought to seek and preserve friends, to the end they may be protectors 
Protectors.  of our goods, and likewise judges of our evils: for the good friend is no less bound to withdraw us from vices whereby we are slandered, than to deliver us from our enemies by whom we may be slain.   

The justice and punishment of God, together with his mercy, goodness, and purpose.  
WHen man is in his chiefest bravery, and trusteth most to men's wisdom; then the secret judgement of God soon confoundeth and discomforteth him.  
The mercy and justice of God goeth always together, to the intent the one should encourage the good, and the other threaten the evil.  
I would to God we had so much grace to acknowledge our offences, as God hath reason to punish our sins.  
The great mercy of God doth suffer much, yet our manifest offences deserve more.  
With God 
God impartial.  there is no acception of persons, for he maketh the one rich, the other poor; the one sage, the other simple; the one whole, the other sick; the one fortunate, the other unlucky; the one servant, the other master; and let no man muse thereat, for that such are his ordinances.  
We see daily that it is impossible for man's malice to disorder that which the divine providence hath appointed, but that which man in a long time decreeth, God otherwise disposeth in one moment.  
It is requisite that God should order his purpose: for in the end sith man is man, in few things he cannot be either certain or assured; and sith God is God, it is impossible that in any thing he should err.  
Things that are measured by the divine judgement, man hath no power with razor to cut them.  
As it is meet we should trust in the greatness of God's mercy, so likewise it is reason we should fear the rigour of his justice.  
It is the just judgement of God that he that committeth evil shall not escape without punishment, 
God will punish malefactors.  and he that counseleth the evil shall not live undefamed.  
What the evil with their tyranny have gathered in many days, God shall take from them in one hour. Likewise what the good have lost in many years, God in one moment may restore.  
God doth not put us under good or evil fortune, but doth govern us with his mercy and justice.   

justice and justicers.  
IT is an infallible rule and of human malice most used, that he that is most hardy to commit greatest crimes, is most cruel to give sentence against another for the same offence.  
We behold our own faults as through small nets, which causeth things to seem the lesser: but we behold the faults of others in the water, which causeth them to seem greater.  
There is no God commandeth, nor law counseleth, nor common wealth suffereth, that they which are admitted to chastise liars, should hang them which saith truth.  
I am of the opinion that what man or woman withdraweth their ears from hearing truth, impossible it is for them to apply their hearts to love any virtues, be it Senator that judgeth; or Senate that ordaineth; or emperor that commandeth; or Consul that executeth; or Orator that pleadeth.  
The opinion of all wise men is; 
They are unwise that desire offices, because they are burdens.  that no man except he lack wit, or surmount in folly, will gladly take on him the burden and charge of other men.  
A greater case it is for a shamefast man to take upon him an office to please every man, for he must show a countenance outward, contrary to that he thinketh inward.  
He that will take charge to govern other, seeketh care and trouble for himself; envy for his neighbours; spurs for his enemies; poverty for his wealth; danger for his body; torment to his good renown; and an end of his days.  
The charge of justice should not be given to him that willingly offereth himself to it, 
The choosing of a justice.  but to such as by great deliberation are chosen.  
Men now a days be not so loving to the common wealth, that they will forget their own quietness and rest, and annoy themselves to do others good.  
judges should be just and upright: for there is nothing decayeth more a common wealth, than a judge who hath not for all men one balance indifferent.  
There are many in common wealths that are expert to devise new orders, but there are few that have stout hearts to put the same in execution.  
It is impossible for any man to minister justice, unless he know before what justice meaneth.  
It is impossible that there be peace and justice in the common wealth, if he which governeth it be a lover of liars and flatterers.  
That common wealth is greatly slandered, wherein the evil are not punished, nor the good honoured.  
The desire of commandment is become so licentious, 
Lightness in offenders.  that it seemeth to the subject that the weight of a feather is lead; and on the contrary it seemeth to the commanders, that for the flying of a fly they should draw their swords.  
There is no worse office among men, than to take the charge to punish the vices of another; 
Hatred the reward of correction.  and therefore men ought to fly from it as from the pestilence: for in correcting of vices, hatred is more sure to the corrector than amendment of life is to the offendor.  
Reason it is that he or she which with evil demeanour have passed their life, should by justice receive their death.  
Matters of justice consisteth more in execution than in commanding or ordaining.  
That common wealth cannot decay where justice remaineth for the poor; 
Discipline.  punishment for the tyrants; weight and measure plentiful; and chief, if there be good doctrine for the young, and little covetousness in the old.  
Correction executed after a good sort hath this property, that it encourageth the good to be good, and feareth the wicked from their wickedness.  
If men were not endued with reason, and governed by justice! among all beasts none were so unprofitable.  
justice being taken away what are realms but dens of thieves: for, to affirm that men can live without justice, is as much to say as fishes can live without water.  
Do justice thyself if thou wilt be a minister thereof: for the good judge with the right yard of his own life, aught to measure the whole state of the common wealth.  
O to how much is he bound that hath taken upon him to minister iusticel If such an one be an upright man he accomplisheth that whereunto he is bound; but if unjust, justly of God he ought to be punished, and likewise of men to be accused.  
No man neglecteth justice, 
Negligence in justice.  but for want of knowledge and experience; or else through abundance of affection and malice.  
Musing with myself wherein so many damages of the common wealth did consist; 
cause of offences.  such disobedience, such contrarieties, so many thieves: in the end I find that all or the most part proceed, in that they provide for ministers of justice, not for conscience sake, but for covetousness and ambition's sake.  
The virtuous and Christian judge ought rather to shed tears in the Church, 
Of judges.  than by affection of men to shed blood in the seat of judgement.  
There are many judges, which employ their study more to get friends, to maintain their state proudly, than for to read books to judge men's causes uprightly.  
Great shame ought they to have, which take upon them to correct others, when they have more need to be corrected themselves: for the blind man ought not to take upon him to lead the lame.  
If the poor come to demand justice having no money to give; 
The poor man's suit for justice.  no wine to present; no friend to speak: after his complaint he receiveth fair words, & promises of speedy justice: but in the end he consumeth that he hath; spendeth his time; looseth his hope, and is void of his suit although his cause be never so honest and good.  
If we sigh with tears to have good princes, we ought much more to pray, that we have not evil officers.  
What profiteth it the knight to be nimble, if the horse be not ready? 
Every member ought to join with his head.  What availeth it the owner of the ship to be sage and expert, if the pilot be a fool and ignorant? What profiteth the king to be valiant and stout, and the captain in the war to be a coward? I mean what profiteth it a prince to be honest, if those that minister justice be dissolute? What profiteth us that the prince be true, if his officers be liars? What to be loving and gentle, and his officers cruel and malicious? What to be liberal, if the judge that ministereth justice be a briber and an open thief? What to be careful and virtuous, if the judge be negligent and vicious? What availeth it if he in his house be secret just, if he trust a tyrant and an open thief with the government of the commonwealth?  
judges ought to be just in their words; honest in their works; merciful in their justice; and above all, not corrupted with bribes.  
It sufficeth not that judges be true in their words; but it is very necessary that they be upright in their dealings.  
judges ought not to have respect to those which desire them, but to that which they demand: for in doing their duty their enemies will proclaim them just; and contrariwise if they do that which they should not, their nearest friends will count them tyrants.  
Lycurgus' made a law, whereby he enjoined judges not to be covetous, nor yet thieves: for the judge that hath received part of the theft will not give sentence against the stealers thereof.  
Oftentimes it chaneeth that judges do eat the fruit, and the poor suitor doth feel the morsel.  
Sith frailty in men is natural, and the punishment they give us is voluntary; let judges show in ministering of justice that they do it for the zeal of the common wealth, and not with a mind to revenge.  
The beginning of judges are pride and ambition, 
Wicked judges.  their means is envy and malice, and their end is death and destruction: for the leaves shall never be green where the roots are dry.  
Offices are sometimes given to friends in recompense of friendship; 
Offices.  sometimes to servants to acquit their service; sometimes to their solicitors, to the end they shall not importune them: so that few remain to the virtuous, which only for being virtuous are provided.   

Idleness.  
Every lightness done in our youth breaketh down a loop of our life; 
The gate whereinto evil entereth.  but idleness whereby our enemy entereth is it, which openeth the gate to all vice.  
Of idle motions and outrageous thoughts the eyes take licence without leave, the mind altereth, and the will is hurt: and finally, thinking to be the white that amorous men shoot at, they remain as a burt full of vices.  
In conclusion there is nothing that more chaseth the ball of the thought in this play, than the hand set a work.  
There is nothing breedeth vice sooner in children, 
Parents do hatch idleness in youth.  than when the fathers are too negligent, and the children too bold, as do not keep the same from idleness.  
The prince that occupieth himself to hear vain and trifling things, in time of necessity shall not employ himself to those which be of weight and importance: for idleness and negligence are cruel enemies to wisdom.   

Of knowledge, wisdom, foresight, and virtue.  
WE cannot say that the man knoweth little, which doth know himself.  
Man giving his mind to seek strange things, cometh to forget his own proper.  
We see by experience that in the fistula that is stopped, 
Foresight is good in all things.  and not that which is open the surgeon maketh doubt; in the shallow water, and not in the deep seas the pilot despaireth; the good man of arms, is more afeard of the secret ambushment, than in the open battle. I mean that the valiant man ought to beware not of strangers, 
In trust is treason.  but of his own; not of enemies, but of friends; not of the cruel war, but of feigned peace; not of the open damage, but of the privy peril.  
How many have we seen whom the mishaps of fortune could never change, and yet afterward having no care she hath made them fall.  
Asignorance is the cruel scourge of virtues, 
Ignorance and overmuch knowledge.  and spur to all vice: so it chanceth oftentimes that overmuch knowledge putteth wise men in doubt, and slandereth the innocent: forasmuch as we see by experience the most presumptuous in wisdom, are those which fall into most perilous vices.  
The end why men ought to study is to learn to live well: for there is no truer science in man than to know how to order his life well.  
What profiteth it me to know much, 
The use of study.  if thereby I take no profit; what to speak strange languages, if I refrain not my tongue from other men's matters; what to study many books, if I study not but to beguile my friends; what to know the influence of the stars and course of the elements, if I cannot keep myself from vices?  
In all things we are so doubtful, and in all our works so disordered, that at some times our understanding is dull and loseth the edge; and at another time it is more sharp than it is necessary.  
poverty causeth good men's children to be virtuous, so that they attain to that by virtue which others come unto by riches.  
It is a rule that never faileth, that virtue maketh a stranger grow natural; and vice maketh a natural a stranger in his own country.  
It is impossible a young child should be vicious, if with due correction he had been instructed in virtues.  
Noble men enterprising great things, ought not to employ their force as their noble heart willeth, but as wisdom and reason teacheth.  
There is no man so wise and sage, but erreth more through ignorance, than he doth good by wisdom: and there is no man so just, but wanteth much to execute true justice.  
The virtuous do so much glory of their virtue, 
Virtue.  as the evil and malicious have shame and dishonour of their vice: for virtue maketh a man to be temperate and quiet, but vice maketh him dissolute and wretchles.  
The lack of a physician may cause danger in man's person, 
Wise men.  but the lack of a wise man may set discord among the people.  
Marcus Aurelius at his meat; 
Wise men.  at his going to bed; at his uprising; in his travel; openly nor secretly suffered at any time that fools should communicate with him, but only wise and virtuous men, whom he always entirely loved: he had reason therein; for there is nothing, be it in jest or earnest, but is better liked of a wise man than of a fool.  
If a prince be sad, cannot a wise man by the sayings of the holy scriptures counsel him better, than a fool by foolish words?  
If the prince will pass the time away, 
Wisdom is pastime.  shall not he be more comforted with a wise man that reckoneth unto him the savoury histories done in times past, than hearkening to a fool speaking foolishly, and declaring things dishonestly, and ripping up the sayings of the malicious of the time present?  
That which I most marvel at is not so much for the great authority that fools have in the palaces of princes and great nobles; 
Fools esteemed more than wise men.  as for the little credit and succour that wise men have among them.  
It is a great injury that fools should enter into the chamber of princes unto their bed side, 
Boldness of fools admitted.  and that one wise man may not, nor dare not enter into the hall; so that to the one there is no gate shut, and to the other no gate open.  
Now in these days there is no wise man alone that traveleth to be wise; but it is necessary for him to travel how to get his living: for necessity enforceth him to violate the rules of true philosophy.  
Whether he be prince, prelate, or private, let him have about him sage and wise men, and to love them above all treasure: for of good counsel there cometh profit, and much treasure is a token of danger.  
Croesus' said; 
Croesus'.  I account myself to be dead, though to the simple folks I seem to be alive: and the cause of my death is, because I have not about me some wise person: for he is only alive amongst the living, who is accompanied with the wise.  
Evil princes do seek the company of wise men for no other intent, but only because through them they would excuse their faults.  
We learn not to command, 
Anacharsis to Croesus.  but to obey; not to speak, but to be silent; not to resist, but to humble ourselves; not to get much, but to content us with little; not to revenge offences, but to pardon injuries; not to take from others, but to give our own to others; not to be honoured, but to travel to be virtuous: finally we learn to despise that which other men love, and to love that which other men despise, which is poverty.  
To a man that hath government, 
Too soon, too late.  two things are dangerous, that is to wit, too soon, or too late; but of these two, the worst is too soon, for if by determining too late a man looseth that which he might have gotten, by determining too soon, that is lost which is now gained, and that which a man might have gained.  
To men which are too hasty, 
Too hasty.  chanceth many evils & dangers: for the man being unpatient, and his understanding high, afterwards cometh quarrels and brawlings, displeasures, varieties, and also vanities, which looseth their goods and putteth their person in danger.  
It chanceth oftentimes to wise men that when remedy is gone, repentance cometh suddenly: and then it is too late to shut the stable door when the steed is stolen.  
He is wisest that presumeth to know least, and among the simple he is most ignorant that thinketh he knoweth most.  
Science profiteth nothing else but to keep thy life well ordered, and thy tongue well measured.  
Vain and foolish men by vain and foolish words, 
Pleasure revealed is folly.  do publish their vain and light pleasures, and wise men by wise words do dissemble their grievous sorrows.  
Profound science and high eloquence, seldom meet in one person.  
There is no man in the world so wise, but may further his doings with the advise of an other.  
There is nothing more easy than to know the good, and nothing more common than to follow the evil.  
As the fine gold defendeth his pureness among the burning coals, so the man endued with wisdom showeth himself wise, yea in the midst amongst many fools: for as the gold in the fire is proved, so among the lightness of fools is the wisdom of the wise discerned.  
The wise is not known among the wise, 
Two contraries do make one the more perfect.  nor the fool among fools; but that among fools the wise man doth shine, and that among the wise fools are darkened, for there the wise showeth his wisdom, and the fool his folly.  
He only ought to be called wise who is discreet in his works, and resolute in his words.  
It is a rule that evil works do carry away the credit from good words.  
There is nothing destroyeth sooner princes, than thinking to have about them wise men to counsel them, find them malicious, and such as seek to deceive them.  
It is not the part of wise and valiant men to enlarge their dominions, and diminish their honour.  
Wise men ought circumspectly to see what they do, to examine that they speak, 
Circumspection necessary.  to prove that they take in hand, to beware whose company they use, and above all to know whom they trust.   

The law and ordinances.  
THe law which by will is made and not of right ordained, deserveth not to be obeyed.  
The Achaians observed this for a law and custom, 
Achaians.  that the husbands should obey, and the wives command: for the husbands swept and made clean the houses, made the bed, washed the buck, covered thetable, dressed the dinner, and went for water. On the contrary part his wife governed the goods, answered the affairs, kept the money: and if she were angry, she gave him not only foul words, but also oftentimes laid her hands on him to revenge her anger, whereof came this proverb, vita Achaiae.  
Where men have so little discretion that they suffer themselves to be governed (be it well or evil) of their wives, and that every woman commandeth her husband, there can be nothing more vain or light, than by man's law to give that authority to a woman, which by nature is denied her.  
The laws are as yokes under the which the evil do labour, and they are wings under the which the good do fly.  
The great multitude of laws are commonly evil kept, and are on the other part cause of sundry troubles.  
The Romans did avoid the great number of laws and institutions: 
Romans avoided laws  for that it is better for a man to live as reason commandeth him, than as the law constraineth him.  
Laws are easily ordained, but with difficulty executed, and there be thousands that can make them, but not one that will see the execution of them.  
The law of Athens was that nothing should be bought before a Philosopher had set the price: 
Athens.  I would the same law at these days were observed; for there is nothing that destroyeth a common wealth more, than to permit some to sell as tyrants and others to buy as fools.   

Of love.  
Believe not that love is true love, but rather sorrow; not joy, but perplexity; not delight, but torment; not contentment, but grief; not honest recreation, but confusion; seeing that in him that is a lover must be looked for, youth, liberty, and liberality.  
Straw that is rotten is fit for the land than the house, so in a broken body and aged, sorrow and infirmities are fit passions than love: for to Cupid and Venus no sort of people is acceptable, 
Which are fit lovers.  but young men to serve them. The liberal which spares for no cost; the patiented to endure; discreet to speak; secret to conceal; faithful to deserve; and constant to continue to the end.  
It is a misery to be poor and proud; 
Torments of love.  to be revengeful, and dare not strike; to be sick and far from succour; to be subject to our enemies; and lastly to suffer peril of life without revenge: but for an old man to be in love, 
Love in age.  is the greatest wretchedness that can occupy the life of man: for the poor sometimes findeth pity, but the old man standeth always rejected.  
The coward findeth friends to bear out his quarrel, but the amorous old man liveth always persecuted with passions.  
The sick lives under the climate of God's providence, and is relieved by hope, but the old amorous man is abandoned all succour.  
He that is subject to his enemies, is not sometimes without his seasons of consolation and quiet, where to the old lover is no time of truce, or hope of reconcilement.  
There is nothing more requireth government than the practice of love, seeing that in cases of hunger, thirst, cold, heat, and all other natural influences they may be referred to passions sensible only to the body, but the follies, imperfections, and faults in love, the heart is subject to suffer, feel, and bewail them, since love more than all other things natural, retaineth always this property, to exercise tyranny always against the heart of his subjects.  
There is no doubt but unperfit love will resolve into jars, contention, and continual disquietness: for that where is not conformity of condition, there can be no contented love, no more than where is no true faith can be no true operation of good life and manners.  
Say what you will, and surmise the best to please fancy, but according to experience, the best remedy in love is to avoid occasion, and to eschew conversation: for that of the multitude that follow him, there are few free from his bondage, where such as abandon him liveth always in liberty.  
Behold how dearly I loved thee; 
The nature of love.  in thy presence I always behold thee; and absent I always thought of thee; sleeping I dreamt of thee; I have wept at thy sorrows, and laughed at thy pleasures: finally, all my wealth I wished thee, and all thy misfortunes I wished to me.  
I feel not so much the persecution thou hast done to me, as I do the wailing forgetfulness thou hast showed to me.  
It is a great grief to the covetous man to lose his goods; but without comparison, it is a greater torment for the lover to see his love evil bestowed: for it is a hurt always seen; a pain always felt; a sorrow always gnawing; and a death that never endeth.  
As the love of a covetous woman endeth when goods faileth: 
A covetous woman's love.  so doth the love of the man when beauty decayeth.  
That woman which never loved for goods, but was beloved for beauty, did then love with all her heart, and now abhor with all her heart.  
The gallows is not so cruel to the evil doer, 
The slavery of love.  as thou art to me, which never thought otherwise than well: they which suffer there do endure but one death, but thou makest me to suffer a thousand: they in one day and one hour do end their lives, and I every minute do feel the pangs of death: they die guilty, but I innocently: they die openly, and I secretly. What wilt thou more I say; they for that they died, and I shed hearty tears of blood for that I live; their torments spreadeth abroad through all the body, but I keep mine altogether in my heart.  
O unhappy heart of mine, that being whole thou art divided; 
Operation of love.  being in health thou art hurt; being alive, thou art killed; being mine own, thou art stolen; and the worst of all, thou being the only help of my life, dost only consent unto my death.  
Love bewitcheth the wisest, and blindfoldeth reason, as appeareth in many wise philosophers: as for example; Gratian was in love with Tamira.  
Solon Selaminus was in love with a Grecian.  
Pitacus Mitelenus left his own wife, and was in love with a bond woman that he brought from the war. 
Inconveniences of love.   
Periander prince of Achaia, and chief philosopher of all Greece, at the instance of his lovers slew his own wife.  
Anacharsis the philosopher, a Scythian by his father, and a Greek by his mother, loved so dearly a friend of his called Thebana, that he taught her all that he knew: in so much that he being sick on his bed, she read for him in the schools.  
Tarentinus the master of Plato and scholar of Pythagoras occupied his mind more to invent new kinds of love than to employ his mind to virtue and learning.  
Borgias Cleontino borne in Cicill had more concubines in his house than books in his study.  
All these were wise, and known for no less:  
Yet in the end were overcome with the flesh.  
O how many times did Hercules desire to be delivered from his love Mithrida; 
Valiantness vanquished by love.  Menelaus from Dortha; Pyrrhus from Helena; Alcibiades from Dorobella; Demophon from Phillis; Hannibal from Sabina; and Marcus Antonius from Cleopatra: from whom they could never only departed, but also in the end for them and with them were cast away.  
In case of love let no man trust any man, and much less himself: for love is so natural to man or woman, and they desire to be beloved, that where love amongst them doth once begin to cleave, it is a sore that never openeth, and a bond that never unknitteth.  
Many words outwardly declare small love within; and the fervent inward love keepeth silence outward: the entrails within embraced with love causeth the tongue outward to be mute: he that passeth his life in love, aught to keep his mouth close.  
The love of the mother is so strong, 
Love of parents.  though the child be dead and laid in the grave, yet always she hath him quick in her heart.  
Amongst the well married persons is true love and perfect friendship: 
Matrimonial love.  as for parents and friends if they praise us in presence, they hate us in absence; if they give fair words, they carry hollow hearts; if they love us in prosperity, they hate us in adversity: but it is not so among the noble and well married persons. In prosperity and adversity, poverty and riches, absence and presence, in mirth and sadness do they love, and if not aught to do: for when the husband is troubled in his foot, the wife ought to be grieved in her heart.  
We see by experience that love in marriage is seldom broken through poverty, 
Marriage.  nor yet continued with riches.  
The love betwixt the husband and wife ought to be such, that she by her patience ought to suffer the imperfections of him: and likewise he by his wisdom ought to dissemble the importunities of her, that they may the rather love and agree together.  
The dart of love is like a stroke with a clod of earth, 
What loan is like.  which being thrown amongst a company doth hurt the one, and blind the other.  
The heart which is entangled with love dare boldly adventure himself in many kind of dangers, to accomplish that which he desireth.  
Women ought to know that for their beauty they are desired, 
Wherefore women are desired and loved.  but for their virtue only they are beloved.  
The love of the flesh is so natural to the flesh, that when from you the body flieth in sport, we leave our hearts to you engaged in earnest: and though reason as reason putteth the desire to flight; yet the flesh as flesh yieldeth itself a prisoner.  
The man that willingly goeth into the briars must think before to endure the pricks.   

What Man and his life is, with fortune and her frailty.  
IF man would deeply consider what man is, he should find more things in him to move him to humility, than to stir him to be proud.  
O miserable and frail nature of man, 
Man's nature considered, is nothing.  which taken by itself is little worth, and compared with another thing is much less.  
Man seethe in brute beasts many things which rejoiceth him, and if beasts had reason they should see in man many things which they would shame at.  
Man being borne can neither go, move, or stand, where all other beasts assoon as they are disclosed can do and perform all these.  
As the evil doer is imprisoned with his hands bound, 
Man bound hand and foot at first coming and last going.  and his feet in the stocks: so likewise to the miserable man, when he entereth into the charter of this life, immediately they bind both his hands and feet, and lay him in the cradle; and so they use him at his departure out of this world.  
It is to be noted that at the hour wherein the beast is brought forth, though it know not the father, yet it findeth the mother: for that it presently sucketh the teats if it have milk; if not, it shroudeth itself under her wings: it is not so with man; for the day wherein he is borne, he knoweth not the nurse that giveth him milk; the father that begat him; nor mother that bore him; nor the midwife that received him. Moreover, cannot see with his eyes; hear with his ears; judge with his taste, and knoweth not what it is to taste or smell: so that we see him to whom the signiory of all things doth appertain, to be borne the most unable of all other beasts.  
To beasts nature hath given clothing wherewith they may keep them from the heat in summer, 
The apparel of beasts.  and defend the cold in winter, as to sheep, wool; to birds, feathers; to horses, hair; to trees, bark; to fishes, scales, to snails, shells.  
Of all this man is deprived; who is borne all naked, and dieth all naked, not caring with him one only garment: and if in the time of his life he useth any garments, he must demand it of the beast both leather and wool, and thereto must put his labour and industry.  
What care and travel had man been discharged of, 
The care of man.  if the travel to apparel himself, and to search for things to eat had been taken from him: before he eateth he must till, sow, reap, and thrash, he must winnow, grind, and bake: and this cannot be done without the care of mind, and sweat of brows.  
We see the sheep flieth the wolf; the cat flieth the dog; the rat flieth the cat; and the chicken the kite. O miserable creatures that we are, we know not how to fly our enemies, because they are in our own shape.  
When man thinketh oftentimes that he hath entered a sure haven, 
Danger in our safety.  within three steps afterwards he falleth headlong into the deep sea.  
O poor and miserable man, who for to sustain this wretched life is enforced to crave the beasts help: they draw him water; they soil his land; they plough his land; they carry his corn; and bear himself from place to place.  
What state liveth man in, that cannot but bewail the unthankfulness of his friends, 
Sorrows of man.  the death of his children, the want of necessaries, the case of adversity that succeed them, the false witness that is brought against them, and a thousand calamities that do torment their hearts.  
The innocency of the brute beasts considered, and the malice of the malicious man marked, without comparison the company of the brute beast is less hurtful than the conversation of evil men: for in the end if ye be conversant with a beast, ye have not but to beware of him; but if ye be in company with a man, there is nothing wherein ye ought to trust him.  
Treasure consumed in making a man's grave is very vain, 
The making of costly sepulchres is vain.  for there is no greater lightness or vanity in man, than to be esteemed much for his sumptuous grave, and little for the life he hath led. 
A painted case for a stinking carcase.  It profiteth little the body to be among the painted and carved stones, when the miserable soul is burning in the fiery flames of hell.  
The man that presumeth to be sage in all things, and well provided goeth not so fast that at every step he is in danger of falling, not so softly that in long time he cannot arrive at his journeys end: for false fortune gawleth in steed of striking, and in steed of gawling striketh.  
What evil happened to Hercules that after so many dangers, came to die in the arms of an harlot; Alexander after his great conquest ended his life with poison; Agamemnon that worthy Greek, after ten years wars against the Troyans', 
Man's end is in the hand of God.  was killed entering into his own house; julius Caesar after two and fifty battles was killed in the Senate house with twenty-three. wounds; Hannibal slew himself in one moment, because he would not become a prey to his enemies. What mishap is this after so many fortunes; what reproach after such glory; what peril after such surety; what evil luck after such good success; what dark night after so clear day; what evil entertainment after so great labour; what cruel sentence after so long process; what inconvenience of death after so good beginning of life?  
The miserable life of man is of such condition that daily our years do diminish, and our troubles increase; life is so troublesome that it wearieth us, and death is so doubtful that it feareth us.  
The philosopher Appollonius being demanded what he wondered most at in all the world, answered but at two things, the one was, that in all parts wherein he had traveled he saw quiet men troubled by seditious persons; the humble subject to the proud; the just obedient to the tyrant; the cruel commanding the merciful; the coward ruling the hardy; the ignorant teaching the wise; and above all, I saw the most thieves hang up the innocent.  
The other was that in all the places and circuit that he had been in, I know not, neither could find any man everlasting, but that all are mortal; and that both high & low have an end, for many enter the same night into the grave which the day ensuing thought to be alive.  
Aristotle saith, that man is but a tree planted with the roots upward, whose root is the head, 
Man described as a tree.  and the stock is the body, the branches are the arms, the bark is the flesh, the knots are the bones, the sap is the heart, the rottenness is malice, 
The fruits of this tree.  the gum is love, the flowers are words, and the fruits are good works.  
We see the vapours to ascend high; the plants grow high; the trees bud out on high; the surges of the sea mount high; the nature of the fire is always to ascend upward; only the miserable man groweth downward, and is brought low by reason of the feeble and frail flesh, which is but earth, and cometh of earth, and liveth on earth, and in the end returneth to the earth from whence it came.  
Generally there is no man so good but a man may find in him somewhat reprooveable, nor any man so evil but he hath in him something commendable.   

What man and his life is.  
O Blindness of the world; 
Beauty.  o life which never liveth, nor shall live; o death which never hath end: I know not why man through the accident of his beauty should take upon him any vain glory or presumption, sith he knoweth that all the perfectest and most fair, must be sacrificed to the worms in the grave.  
It is to be marveled at that all men are desirous that all things about them should be clean; 
cleanliness in body, and filthiness in soul.  their gowns brushed; their coats neat; the table handsome; and the bed fine; and only they suffer their souls to be spotted and filthy.  
The fair and well proportioned man is therefore nothing the more virtuous: he that is deformed and evil shapen, is nothing therefore the more vicious.  
Corporal beauty early or late perisheth in the grave, but virtue and knowledge maketh men of immortal memory.  
Although a man be great, 
Bigness maketh not strength.  it followeth not that he is strong: so that it is no general rule that the big body hath always a valiant and courageous heart, nor the little man a faint and false heart.  
julius Caesar was big of body, 
Caesar described.  yet evil proportioned: for he had his head bald, his nose sharp, one hand more shorter than the other, and being young, had a riveled face, yellow of colour, went crooked, and his girdle half undone.  
Hannibal was called monstrous both for his deeds and evil proportion: 
Hannibal.  for of his two eyes he lacked the right, and of the two feet he had the left foot crooked, fierce of countenance, and little of body.  
Truly he feeleth the death of another which always is sorrowful and lamenting his own life. 
We feel an others death by lamenting our own life.   
To esteem thyself to be handsome and proper of person, 
Thine own estimation nothing.  is no other thing but to esteem thyself, that dreaming thou shalt be rich and mighty, and waking, thou findest thyself poor and miserable.  
What shall we say to this little flower that yesterday flourished on the tree whole without suspicion to be lost, 
Man's life.  and yet one little frost wasteth and consumeth it; the vehement wind overthroweth it; the knife of envy cutteth it; the water of adversity undoth it; the heat of persecutions pineth it; the putrefaction of death decayeth it, and bringeth it down to the ground.  
O man's life that art always cursed, 
Fortune with her force.  I count fortune cruel, & thee unhappy, since she will not that thou stay on her, which dreaming, giveth thy pleasures, and waking, giveth thy displeasures; which giveth into thy hands travel to taste, and suffereth thee to listen after quiet; which will that thou approve adversity, and agree not that thou have proseritie, but after her will, she giveth thee life by ounces, and death without measure.  
The young man is but a new knife, 
Age compared.  the which in process of time cankereth in the edge; one day he breaketh the point of understanding; another he looseth the edge of cutting; and next the rust of diseases taketh him, and afterwards by adversities he is writhe, and by infirmities diseased; by riches he is wheted; by poverty he is dulled again; and oftentimes it chanceth, that the more sharp he is whetted, so much the more the life is put in hazard.  
It is a true thing that the feet and hands are necessary to climb to the vanities of youth, and afterwards stumbling a little, immediately rolling the head downwards, we descend into the miseries of age.  
What thing is more fearful or more incredible, 
The beauty of man changeth.  than to see a man become miserable in short space; the fashion of his visage changeth; the beauty of the face lost; the beard wax white; the head bald; the cheeks & forehead full of wrinkles; the teeth as white as ivory becometh black as a coal; the light feet by the gout are crepeled; the strong arm with palsy weakened; the fine and smooth throat with wrinkles plaited; and the body that was strait and upright, waxeth crooked.  
The beauty of man is none other but a veil to cover the eyes, 
Beauty of man.  a pair of fetters for the feet, manacles for the hands, a lime rod for the wings, a these of time, an occasion of danger, a provoker of trouble, a place of lechery, a sink of all evil; and finally it is an inventor of debates, and a scourge of the affectioned man.  
O simple, simple and ignorant persons, how our life consumeth and we perceive not how we live therein.   

Of mercy, pity, help, and compassion towards the poor.  
HAppy not once, 
An hundred times happy.  but an hundred times is he that will remember the poor afflicted, and open his heart to comfort them, and doth not shut his coffers from helping them: to him at the strait day of judgement, the process of his life shall be judged with mercy and pity.  
The pitiful heart which is not fleshed in cruelty, hath as much pity to see another man suffer, as of the sorrow and torment which he himself feeleth.  
If a man behold himself from top to toe, he shall find not one thing in him to move him to cruelty, but he shall see in himself many instruments to exercise mercy.  
For he hath eyes to behold the needy, 
Anatomy of man.  feet to go to the church, ears to hear God's word, hands to be stretched to the poor, a tongue to utter good things, an heart to love God: and to conclude, he hath understanding to know the evil, and discretion to follow the good.  
God hath not given him scratching nails as to the cat, nor poison as to the serpent, nor perilous feet as to the horse to strike withal, nor bloody teeth as to the Lion, but hath created us to be pitiful, and commanded us to be merciful.   

Obedience.  
AS the element of the fire, the element of the air, and the element of water do obey, and the element doth command of the earth, or that against their nature he bringeth them to the earth, and all the noble and most chiefest elements obedient to the most vile, only to form a body mixed, it is great reason that all obey one virtuous person, that the common wealth thereby might be the better governed.  
The second reason is of the body and soul: 
Offices of the body and soul.  The soul is the mistress that commandeth, and the body the servant which obeyeth: for the body neither seethe, heareth, nor understandeth without the soul, but the soul doth these without the body.  
In that common wealth where one hath care for all, and all obey the commandment of that one, there God shall be served, the people shall profit, the good shall be esteemed, the evil despised: and besides that, tyrants shall be suppressed.  
How many people and realms because they would not obey their prince by justice, hath sithence by cruel tyrants been governed with tyranny: for it is a just plague that those which despise the sceptre of righteous princes should feel and prove the scourge of cruel tyrants.  
O happy common wealth wherein the prince findeth obedience in the people, 
A happy common wealth.  and the people in like manner love of the prince: for of the love of the prince springeth obedience in the subjects, and of the obedience in the subjects springeth the love of the prince.   

Patience.  
Look how much we offend through the offence, so much do we appease through patience.  
The patience which God useth in not punishing our faults, is greater than that which men have in suffering the chastisement, because we justly offend, and justly are punished.  
I account all in me at the disposition of fortune, 
The phrase is heathenish; for God ruth, and not blind chance  as well riches as other prosperities, and I keep them in such a place, that at any hour in the night when she listeth, she may carry them away and never awake me: so that though she carry those out of my coffers, she should never rob me of my patience.  
Patience in adversity pleaseth God, where as wrath provoketh his indignation.  
We see in a man's body by experience that there are sundry diseases which are not cured with words spoken, 
Comfortable words many times helpeth maladies.  but with the herbs thereunto applied, and in other diseases the contrary is seen, which are not cured with costly medicines, but with comfortable words.  
When the diseases are not very old rooted nor dangerous, it profiteth more oftentimes to abide a gentle fever, than to take a sharp purgation.  
The impatient heart, especially of a woman, hath no rest till she see her enemy dead.  
No patience can endure to see a man obtain that without travel which he could never compass by much labour. 
Unhappy.   
He is most unhappy which is not patiented in adversity, for men are not killed with the adversities they have, but with the impatience which they suffer.  
Though wise men lose much they ought not therefore to despair, but that they shall come to it again in time, for in the end time doth not cease to do his accustomed alterations, nor perfect friends cease not to do that which they ought.  
That man only in this life may be called unhappy to whom God in his troubles hath not given patience.   

Peace.  
HE alone doth know how precious a thing peace is, which by experience hath felt the extreme misery of war.  
The life of a peaceable man is none other than a sweet peregrination, and the life of seditious persons, is no other than a long death.  
Every prince which loveth foreign wars, 
Wars abroad is an enemy to peace at home.  must needs hate the peace of his common wealth.  
Aristotle doth not determine which of these two is the most excellent, either stoutness to fight in the wars, or policy to rule in peace.  
That peace is more worth that is honest, than is the victory which is bloody.  
In the good war a man seethe of whom he should take heed, but in the evil peace no man knoweth whom to trust.  
Where peace is not, no man enjoyeth his own; no man can eat without fear; no man sleepeth in good rest; no man safe by the way; no man trusteth his neighbour; and where there is no peace, we are threatened daily with death, and every hour in fear of our life.  
Seeing Christ left to us his peace, and commanded us to keep the same, 
Christ's peace.  we should not condescend for revenging injuries to shed man's blood: for the good christians are commanded to bewail their own sins, but they have no licence to shed the blood of their enemies: and therefore I wish all princes for his sake that is prince of peace, they love peace; procure peace; keep peace; & live in peace; for in peace they shall be rich, and their people happy.   

Pleasure.  
WHat cometh of vain pleasure, 
Fruits of pleasure.  nothing but the time evil spent, famine in way of perdition; goods consumed; credit lost; God offended; and virtue slandered.  
Of pleasure we get the names of brute beasts, and the surnames of shame.  
I would the eyes were opened to see how we live deceived, 
Pleasure vanisheth away with sorrow.  for all pleasures that delight the body, make us believe that they come to abide with us continually, but they vanish away with sorrow immediately: on the contrary, the infirmities that blind the soul, say that they come to lodge as guests, and remain with us continually as householders.  
Death is a miserable lake wherein all worldly men are drowned, for those men that think most safely to pass it over remain therein most subtly deceived.  
During the time that we live in the house of this frail flesh, 
Sensuality.  sensuality beareth so great a rule, that she will not suffer reason to enter in at the gate.  
Reason leadeth voluntarily to virtue; and sensuality draweth men against their wills to vices.  
Vices are of such a quality, that they bring not with them so much pleasure when they come as they leave sorrow behind them when they go; for the true pleasure is not in the daily vice, which suddenly vanisheth: but in the truth which evermore remaineth.  
Wise men after 50. 
50. years.  years ought rather seek how to apply their minds how to receive death, than to seek pleasure how to prolong life.  
How happy may that man be called that never tasted what pleasure meaneth.  
Men that from their infancy have been brought up in pleasure, 
Pleasure the cause of many offences.  for want of wisdom know not how to choose the good, and for lack of force cannot resist the evil, which is the cause that noble men's sons oftentimes commit sundry heinous offences.  
It is an infallible rule, that the more a man give himself to pleasure, the more he is entangled with vices.  
The rich men win with their labour and watching, and their sons brought up in pleasure do consume it sleeping.  
Where there is youth; liberty; pleasure; and money; there will all the vices of the world be resident.  
The greatest vanity that ragineth among the children of vanity, 
Vanity of vanities.  is, that the father cannot show unto the son his love, but in suffering him to be brought up in the pleasures and vanities of this life.  
I wish no greater penance to delicate men, than in winter to see them without fire, and in the summer to want fresh shadow.  
Why are there so many vices nourished in the palace of princes? 
Why vices in princes palaces.  because pleasure aboundeth and counsel wanteth.  
Play as Seneca saith, 
Plays.  is compared to the property & raging of a mad dog, with whom if a man be once bitten; unless he hath present remedy forthwith he runneth mad, and the disease continueth with him until the hour of death: for those that use it hurt their consciences, lose their time, and consume their substance.  
Marcus Aurelius saith, 
Carnal pleasure.  if I knew the gods would pardon me, and also that men would not hate me: yet I assure you for the vileness thereof I would not sin in the flesh.  
Aristotle saith, 
Carnal pleasure shamefast.  all beasts after the deeds of the flesh are sorry, saving only the cock.  
In carnal vices he that hath the least of that, 
Reason alloweth not sensuality, therefore Tully said, pareat appetitus rationi. Fruits of carnal pleasure.  that sensuality desireth, hath a great deal more than reason alloweth.  
I see no other fruits of carnal pleasure but that the body remaineth diseased; the understanding blinded; memory dulled; sense corrupted; will hurt; reason subverted; their good name lost; and worst of all the flesh remaineth always flesh, therefore fire is not quenched with dry wood, but with cold water.  
In the war honour by tarrying is obtained; 
The fame of conquest.  but in the vices of the flesh the victory by fleeing is won.   

Pride.  
THe proud and disdainful man for the most part falleth into some evil chance, therefore it is a commendable medicine sometimes to be persecuted: for adversity maketh a wise man to live more merry, and to walk in less danger.  
What friendship can there be among the proud, since the one will go before, and the other disdaineth to come behind.   

Of Princes, with their acts and sayings.  
A Poor woman coming before Claudius the Emperor with weeping eyes to crave justice, the good prince being moved with compassion, did not only weep as she did, but with his own hands dried up the tears.  
Oftentimes those that come before princes, 
The love of Princes is better sometimes then justice.  do return more contented with the love they show them, than with the justice they minister unto them.  
Antonius Pius was such a favourer of poor widows and Orphans, that the porters which he kept within his palace were not to let the entry of the poor, but to let and keep back the rich.  
To a prince there can be no greater infamy than to be long in words, and short in rewarding his servants.  
Covetous princes do not only suspect their subjects, but also themselves.  
The diseases which God oftentimes sendeth to princes, cometh not through the fault of humours, but through the corruption of manners, the which no medicine can resist, nor any other thing remedy.  
It is the chiefest thing that can belong to a prince or other person, 
The riches of Princes.  to be beloved for their gentle conversation, and for their upright justice to be feared.  
It is necessary for Princes to be stout and rich: for by their stoutness they may govern their own, and by their riches they may repress their enemies.  
The prince which is too liberal in giving his own, is afterward compelled by necessity to become a tyrant and take from others.  
If princes be proud, 
Some hunger after strange realms  greedy, and ambitious after strange realms, it is most certain that they need great treasures to accomplish their inordinate appetites: but if they be reposed quiet, virtuous, patiented, peaceable, & not covetous of the good of another man, what need have they of great treasures.  
Princes become not poor for spending of their goods upon necessaries, but wasting it upon things superfluous.  
High and noble hearts that feel themselves wounded, do not so much esteem their own pain, as to see their enemies to rejoice at their grief.  
It is better for a Prince to defend his country by justice, than to conquer an other by tyranny.  
The prince is in great danger of damnation of soul if in his government he have not always before his eyes the fear and love of the supreme prince, 
Damnation of soul.  to whom we must render account of all our doings, for there is nothing so puissant, but 'tis subject to the divine power.  
That prince hath great occasion to be vicious, which for his vice thinketh not to be chastised.  
Prince's fearing neither God nor his commandments, do cause their realm and subjects to fall into great misery: for if the fountain be infected, it is impossible for the stream thereof to be pure.  
We see by experience that as a bridle mastreth an horse, 
People like affected.  & a stern the ship; so a prince be he good or bad, will after him lead all his people. If they serve God, the people will also serve him; if they blaspheme God, the subjects will do the like: for it is impossible that a tree should bring forth other fruits than those that are agreeable to the root.  
Prince's ought to resemble God more by virtuousness than others.   

Princes.  
WHat shall unhappy princes do which shall render all their account to God only, who will not be deceived with words, corrupted with gifts, feared with threatenings, nor answered with excuses?  
That prince is more to be magnified which reformeth two vices amongst his people, than he which conquereth ten realms of his enemies.  
O princes if ye knew how small a thing it is to be hated of men, and loved of God, ye would not cease night nor day to commend yourselves unto God, for God is more merciful in succouring us, than we are diligent in calling upon him.  
God did never create high estates to work wickedness, but placed them in that degree, to the end they should thereby have more occasion to do him service.  
Princes take great pains to win other countries by cruelty, and little regard to maintain their own by justice.  
All princes that be wilful in their doings be absolute of their sentence.  
The prince that is wicked causeth his subject to rebel, and the seditious subject maketh his lord to become a tyrant.  
Without all doubt it is more intolerable to have the hearts burdened with thoughts, than the necks with irons.  
God did not ordain princes and lords in this world, to eat more and drink more, sleep or rejoice more than others; but he created them upon condition, that as he had made them to command more than others, so should they be more just in their lives than others.  
The prince that hath his mouth full of truth; his hands open to give rewards; and his ears stopped to lies; and his heart open to mercy; such a one may well be called happy, and the people fortunate that hath him.  
Thales being demanded what a prince should do to govern others; he answered, First to govern himself, and then afterward others: for it is impossible the wood should be right where the shadow is crooked.  
As the office of the feet is not to see, but to go; the office of the hands is not to hear, but to labour; the shoulders not to feel, but to bear, even as these offices are not seemly for the members, but for the head: even so should not subjects have to do with that which appertaineth only to the prince which is our head.  
To a king it should be no pleasure but a pain & grief, and to the common people annoyance, that the prince should always be enclosed and shut up: for the prince that shutteth his gates against his subjects, causeth them not to open their hearts willingly to obey him.  
Cursed is that prince, and also unhappy is that common weal where the servants will not serve their lord but for reward, and the lord love them but for their service: for there is never true love where there is any particular interest.  
Cicero in his Tusculans saith, that in old time the people persuaded their princes to communicate with the poor, and that they should fly the rich, for among the poor they may learn to be merciful, and among the rich nothing but to be proud.   

Princes and governors.  
THe Prince for one vice cannot endamage the people, but for being too haughty and presumptuous he may destroy the common wealth.  
If lords and princes give many occasions of evil will, afterwards one only sufficeth to stir the subjects to destroy them: for if the lord show not his hatred, it is because he will not; if the subject do not revenge, it is because he cannot.  
When a man will speak of princes that are dead before a prince alive, he is bound to praise one only virtue which they had, and hath no licence to reveal the vices whereof they were noted.  
The good deserveth reward, because he endeavoureth himself to follow virtue: the evil likewise deserveth pardon, because through frailty he consented to vice.  
What princes ought to do to be good: 
Theodosius Imp.  when sage princes shall walk they ought to have with them wise men, and when he is at meat to reason how to order his life & the common wealth; and at vacant times to counsel with the sage.  
For the knight that entereth into the field to give battle without weapon, is as hardy as the prince that will govern the common wealth without the counsel of wise men.  
Princes that are young are given most commonly to vices: for in the one part youth reigneth, and on the other honesty wanteth; to such truly vices are dangerous, specially if they want the wise to counsel them, to keep them from evil company: for the courageous youth will not be bridled, nor the great liberty chastised.  
Princes no doubt have great need of wise men to counsel them near about them: for since they are in the view of all, they have less licence to commit vice than any of all.  
Prince's ought to be circumspect whom they trust with the government of the realm, 
The care of princes in choosing their protector, captaie, and ambassador, and treasurer, & counsellors.  and to whom they commit the leading of their armies; whom they do send as ambassadors into strange countries; and whom they trust to receive and keep their treasures: but much more circumspect aught they to be in examining of those whom they choose to be their counsellors: for look what he is that counseleth the prince at home in his palace, so likewise shall his renown be in strange countries, and in his own common wealth.  
Let princes know if they do not know, that of the honesty of their servants; 
A princes well ordered house, is a welfare to the public weal.  of the providence of their counsellors; of the sageness of their persons; & of the order of their house dependeth the welfare of the common wealth, for it is impossible for that tree whose roots are dried up, should be seen to bear green leaves.  
The fault that princes have, is, that they are prompt and bold to talk of virtues, and in executing them they are fearful and very slack.  
And although we have licence to praise their virtues, yet are we bound to dissemble their vices.  
Counsellors and officers of princes ought to be so just, 
Officers about the prince.  that shears cannot find what to cut away in their lives, nor that there needeth any needle or thread to amend their fame.  
woe, woe, be to the land where the lord is vicious, the subject seditious, the servant covetous, and the counsellor malicious.  
The prince that is a friend to flatterers, of necessity must be an enemy of the truth.  
The particular love of princes in that they show more to one than to another, 
A great incontinency when princes love one before another.  breedeth oftentimes much envy in their realms: for the one being loved, the other hated, of this cometh hatred; and of hatred cometh evil thoughts; and of evil thoughts proceedeth malice; of malice cometh evil words, which break out in to worse deeds.  
Prince's ought to forbid; and sages ought not to consent, that the quarrelers should trouble the peacemakers: for when the people do rise, immediately covetousness is awaked.  
The noble and valiant princes when they see themselves with other princes, 
Wherein princes should glory.  or that they are present in great acts, aught to show the frankness of their hearts; the greatness of their realms; the love of their common wealth; and the pre-eminence of their person: and above all the discipline of the court; and the gravity of their counsel; for the sage and curious men should not behold the prince in the apparel which he weareth, but the men which he hath to counsel him.  
Prince's oftentimes of their own nature be good: and by evil conversation only they are made evil.  
They which have charge to govern those that do govern, without comparison ought to fear more the vices of a king, than the enemies of the realm: for the enemies are destroyed in a battle, but vices remain during life, and in the end enemies do not destroy but the possessions of the land, but the vicious prince destroyeth the good manners of the common wealth.  
Why do princes commit folly? because flatterers aboundeth that deceiveth them, 
Why princes commit folly.  and true men wanteth that should serve them.  
Princes deserveth more honour for the good means they use in their affairs, than for the good success whereunto it cometh: for the one is guided by adventure, and the other advanced by wisdom.  
The land is with much misery compassed, 
A miserable land.  where the governance of the young is so evil, that all wish for the reviving of the dead.  
It is impossible that the people be well governed if the magistrates that govern them be in their lives dissolute.  
Princes in doubtful matters ought not only to demand counsel of all the good that be alive, 
In doubtful matters.  but also to take pains to talk with the dead, that is, to read the deeds of the good in their writings.  
To a prince that shall be an inheritor, 
Punishment in princes necessary.  one years punishment shall be better worth than xx. years pleasure.  
A prince is as the governor of the ship, 
The definition of a prince.  a standard of a battle, a defence of the people, a guide of the ways, a father of the orphans, a hope of pupils, and a treasure of all.  
The glory of a prince is that in his works he be upright, 
Glory of a prince.  and in his words he speak very discreet.  
The virtues of princes should be so many, that all men might praise them, and their vices so few that no man might reprove them.  
Princes are lords of all things, 
Lords of all things saving justice.  saving of justice, whereof they are only but to minister.  
I would to God that princes did make an account with God in the things of their conscience touching the common wealth, as they do with men touching their rents and revenues.  
Many crouch to princes with fair words, 
Dissimulation.  as though they meant good service to him, their intent being by deceit to get some office, or to seek some profit.   

Servants.  
I Council those that be servants to great lords, that their labours be accounted rather honest than wise: for the wise man can but please, but the honest man can never displease.   

Of the tongue, and of the slanderer or backbiter.  
IT is most certain, that of holly we look for pricks; of Acorns husks; of Nettles stinging, and of thy mouth malice. I have seriously noted, I never saw thee say well of any, nor I never knew any that would thee good.  
Octavian the Emperor being demanded why doing good to all men he suffered some to murmur against him; 
Octavian.  he answered, He that hath made Rome free from enemies, hath also set at liberty the tongues of malicious men.  
That is a cruel thing that the life and honour of those that be good, should by the tongue of the evil be measured.  
As in the forge the coals cannot be kindled without sparks, 
The tongue.  nor as corruption cannot be in the sinks without ordure, so he that hath his heart free from malice, his tongue is always occupied in sweet and pleasant sayings: and contrariwise, out of his mouth whose stomach is infected with malice, proceedeth always words bitter, and full of poison.  
It is an old disease of evil men through malice to backbite with their tongue, 
Backbite.  which through their cowardness they never durst enterprise with their hands.   

Of sorrow and grief.  
Grief is a friend of solitude, enemy of company, a lover of darkness, strange in conversation, & heir to desperation.  
Sith fortune is known of all, she suffereth not herself to be defamed of one; and it is better to think with fortune how thou mayest remedy thyself, than to think with grief how to complain.  
There are divers men which to publish their grief are very careful, but to seek remedy are very negligent.  
We suffer griefs & know them not; with the hands we touch them & perceive them not; we go over them and see them not; they sound in our ears & we hear them not; they daily admonish us, & we do not believe them: finally, we feel the wound, and see not the remedy.  
Experience doth teach us, 
Avoid the taste of evil.  with a little blast of wind the fruit doth fall; with a little spark of fire the house is kindled; with a little rock the ship is broken; at a little stone the foot doth stumble; with a little hook they take great fish; and with a little wound dieth a great person: I mean that our life is so frail, and fortune so fickle, that in that part where we are best harnessed, we are soon wounded and grieved.  
The heavy and sorrowful hearts of this world feel no greater grief than to see others rejoice at their sorrows.  
To men of long life without comparison the diseases are more which they suffer, 
The harvest of a long life.  than the years are which they live.  
If the days be few wherein we see the elements without clouds, fewer are the hours wherein we feel our hearts without cares.  
As much difference as is between the bark and the tree; the marrow and the bone; the corn and the straw; the gold and the dross; the truth and dreams, so much is there to hear the travels of an other, and taste his own.  
Greater is the disease that proceedeth of sorrow, 
Hard to cure the disease engendered by thoughts.  than that which proceedeth of the fever quartan: and thereof ensueth, that more easily he is cured which of corrupt humours is full, than he which with profound thoughts is oppressed.  
There is no grief that so much hurteth a person, as when he himself is cause of his own pain.  
Men which have not God merciful, and men friendly; do eat the bread of grief, and drink the tears of sorrow.  
There is no greater torment to the heart, than when it is differred from that which it greatly desired.  
If all things as they be felt at heart, should be showed outward with the tongue, I think that the winds should break the heart with sighings, and water all the earth with tears.  
If the corporal eyes saw the sorrow of the heart, 
Eyes see not the heart's grief.  I believe they should see more blood sweeting within, than all the weeping that appeareth without.  
There is no comparison of the great dolours of the body, 
Grief of mind incomparable.  with the least grief of the mind.  
For all travel of the body men may find some remedy; but if the heavy heart speak, it is not heard; if it weep, it is not seen; if it complain, it is not believed.  
I know no remedy but this, to abhor the life wherewith it dieth, and to desire death wherewith it liveth.   

The tongue.  
NOble & stout personages though they would be esteemed and judged true in their sayings, having seen many wonders with their eyes, yet when they make report of them, they ought to be very moderate in their tongues: for it is a very shame to an honest man to declare any thing wherein may be any doubt whether it be true or not.  
When a woman is merry, 
Merry women.  she always babbleth more with the tongue, than she knoweth in her heart.  
Men do not utter half their grief, because their woeful and heavy heart commandeth the eyes to weep, and the tongue to be silent.  
The chiefest thing which God gave unto man, was to know and be able to speak, for otherwise (the soul reserved) the brute beasts are of more value than dumb men.  
Pythagoras commanded that all men which are dumb and without speech, 
Pythagoras.  should immediately and without contradiction be banished and expulsed from the people: and the cause why he commanded this, was, that he said, that the tongue is moved by the motions of the soul, and that he which had no tongue, had no soul.  
The tongue which is noble, aught to publish the goodness of the good, to the end that all know it, & the frailness of the wicked aught to be dissembled and kept secret that it be not followed.  
If the body of a man without the soul is little regarded; I swear unto thee that the tongue of a man without truth, is much less esteemed.  
As the sword pierceth the body, so the tongue destroyeth the renown.  
There are many which are of a goodly tongue and wicked life.  
Wise men ought to fear more the infamy of the little pen, than the slander of the babbling tongue.  
All corporal members in a man waxeth old, 
heart and tongue.  saving the inward heart and outward tongue: for the heart is always green to bear the fruit of evil, and the tongue always fruitful to tell lies.   

Time.  
THere is nothing needeth more circumspection than the measuring of Time: for that Time should be measured so justly, that by reason no Time should want to do well, nor any time abound to do evil.  
That time may be accounted lost which is spent without the service of God, 
Time lost.  or profit of our neighbour.  
Time in all things bringeth such change and alteration, that those we have once seen to be great lords, within a while after we have seen slaves.  
Deceive not yourself to say there is time for all amendment, for time is in the hand of God to dispose.   

Wars.  
IN time of war princes cannot reform vices, nor correct the vicious.  
They which move war, or entreat it, aught to consider that if it come not well to pass all the blame shall be imputed to their counsel, and if his substance be not able, presently to recompense the loss, let him assure himself that his soul hereafter shall endure the pain.  
In examining of histories we shall find more defamed for beginning of wars, than renowned for vanquishing of their enemies.  
In wars they do nought else but kill men, 
A confusion.  spoil the people, destroy innocents, give liberty to thieves, separate friends, raise strife, all which cannot be done without hindrance of justice, and scrupulosity of conscience.  
Before wars be begun, 
Foresight in wars is necessary.  it would be considered what loss and what profit may ensue.  
None are fit for the wars but such as little esteem their lives, and much less their consciences.  
If war were only the evil against the evil, there were no thought nor care to be taken, but where honour, fame, glory, and riches are taken prisoners, it is a lamentable matter that so many wise, good, and virtuous be lost.  
Just war is more worth than feigned peace, for look how much his enemy offendeth for taking it, so much he offendeth his common wealth for not defending it.  
Women in times past were led to the wars to dress meat for the whole, 
Women in wars.  and to cure the wounded: but now to the end that cowards should have occasions to be effeminate, and the valiant to be vicious.  
Men which in peace seem most fierce, in time of war show themselves most cowards: 
The valour of men.  and likewise men full of words are for the most part cowards in deeds.   

Women.  
ANd sith God hath commanded and our face doth permit, 
A friendly exhortation.  that the life of men can not pass without women, I advise the youth, and beseech the aged, I awake the wise and instruct the simple, to shun women of evil name, more than the common pestilence.  
She that will be accounted honest, 
A looking glass for a woman.  let her not trust to the wisdom of the wise, nor commit her fame to the wanton youth, let her take heed what he is that promiseth aught, for after that the flames of Venus is set on fire, and Cupid shot his arrows; the rich offereth all that he hath, and the poor all that he may, the wise man will be for ever her friend, and the simple man for ever her servant, the wise man will lose his life for her, and the simple man will accept his death for her.  
It is great peril to wise women to be neighboured with fools; 
If you be a lamb, take heed of the wolf, if you be a wolf devour not the silly lamb.  great peril to the shamefast, to be with the shameless; great peril to the chaste to be with the adulterers; for the honourable to be with the defamed, there is no slandered woman but thinketh every one like herself, or at least desireth so; procureth so; and saith so: in the end to hide their infamy they slander the good.  
divers things ought to be borne in the weakness of women, 
women's weakness pardonable.  which in the wisdom of men are not permitted.  
I know not what justice this is, that they kill men for robbing and stealing of money, and suffer women to live that steal men's hearts.  
Women have more need of remedy, than of good counsel.  
The beauty of women setteth strangers on desire, and putteth neighbours on suspection: to great men it giveth fear; to mean men ennie; to the parent's infamy; to themselves peril; with great pain it is kept that is desired of many.  
The most laudable and holy company in this life is of the man and woman, 
A virtuous woman.  especially if the woman be virtuous: the wife withdraweth all the sorrows from the heart of her husband, and accomplisheth his desires whereby he liveth at rest.  
A man of understanding ought not to keep his wife so short, that she should seem to be his servant; nor yet to give her so much liberty that she becometh thereby his mistress.  
The good wife may be compared to the pheasant, whose feathers we little esteem, and regard much the body: but the evil woman to the Marten, whose skin we greatly account of, and utterly despise the body.  
The complexion of women with child is very delicate, 
A woman with child.  and the soul of the creature is very precious, and therefore it ought with great diligence to be preserved, for all the treasure of the Indies is not so precious, or in value equal to that which the woman beareth in her bowels; when a man planteth a vinyeard, 
A similitude  forthwith he maketh a ditch, or some fence about it, to the end beasts should not crop it while it is young, nor that travelers should gather the grapes when they are ripe; if the labourer to get a little wine only, which for the body and soul is not always profitable, doth this, how much more circumspection ought the woman to have to preserve her child, since she shall render account unto the creator of a creature, unto the church of a christian, unto her husband of a child.  
The birds when they have hatched, 
another similitude.  having but six little ones, have neither milk to nourish them, nor corn to give them; neither have they wings to fly; nor feathers to cover them; nor any other thing to defend them; and yet the mother in all this weakness and poverty forsaketh them not, nor committeth them to any other, but bringeth them up herself; how much more ought a christian woman to nourish and bring up that with her breasts which she once carried in her womb, rather than commit it into the hands of another woman, who because she bore it not, can not have the like tender care over it.  
Children are never so well beloved of their mothers, as when they be nourished of their own breasts.  
If women for excuse should say that they are weak, tender, and that they have found a good nurse; 
A nurse.  I answer, that the nurse hath small love to the child which she nurseth, when she seethe the ungentleness of the mother that bore it, for she alone doth nourish the child with love, which did bear it with pain.  
Aristotle saith that a child at the most ought to suck but two years; 
How long children should suck.  and at the least one year and a half; for if he suck less he is in danger to be sick, and if he suck more he shall be always tender.  
All women are bound to love their husbands, 
A woman's contentation in marriage.  since that willingly and not by compulsion they were not enforced to take them. In like manner if the marriage please not the woman she hath not so much cause to complain of her husband for ask her, as she hath reason to mislike with herself that accepted him.  
The wife to serve her husband in his life time proceedeth oftentimes of fear, 
A black swan.  but to love him and honour him in his grave proceedeth of love.  
A woman cannot say evil of her husband, but she doth witness dishonour to herself.  
I would counsel women not to presume to command their husbands, and admonish husbands not to suffer themselves to be ruled by their wives: for in so doing I account it no otherwise than to eat with the feet, and travel with the hands, to go with their fingers, and to feed themselves with their toes.  
There is an old disease that happeneth to beautiful women, that there be many that defy them, and more that slander them.  
It little availeth man and wife that their goods be common, and their wills private, for if the man and wife in love do differ, in their lives they shall never be quiet.  
The want of magnanimity in the female sex, 
Ingenio pollet cui vim natura negavit.  is supplied with the excellency of quick conceit and invention.  
The reason why women for the more part exceed men in beauty, and good complexion is for that they are an effect of a pure cause, namely of man, a creature polished, and not form as man immediately out of gross earth.  
After the creation of the world and mankind, God preferred the company of a woman as a comfort unto man exceeding all others.   

Good works.  
THey that be old and ancient, aught to praise their good works rather than their white hairs: for honour ought to be given for the good life, and not for the white head.  
To praise virtuous works we greatly desire, 
Praise but not practise.  but to put them in ure we are very slow.  
If I have committed any evil, it is impossible to find any that will do me good: but if I have done well, no man shall be able to do me wrong.  
Men are not bound to judge others by the good nature they have, but by the good and evil works which they do.  
That man is perfit who in his own opinion deserveth not that he hath, and in the opinion of an other deserveth much more than that he possesseth.  
The virtuous aught to conform their works to that they say, 
Saying and doing should be married without divorce.  and publish their words with their deeds.  
There is nothing more infamous than to presume to be wise, and desirous to be counted virtuous: chief, for him that speaketh much, and worketh little.  
Our evil work sufficeth to deface many good works.   

The world and worldly prosperity.  
THe prosperous estate whereupon the children of vanity are set, are founded of quick sand, in that sort that be they never so valiant, prosperous and mighty, a little blast of wind doth stir them, a little calm of prosperity doth open them, & suddenly death doth confound them.  
Men seeing that they cannot be perpetual, do procure to continue themselves in raising up proud buildings, & leaving to their children great estates, wherein I account them fools no less than in things superfluous. Admit the pillars be of gold, the beams of silver, & that those that join them be kings, and those which build them are nobles, in which they consume a thousand years before they can have it out of the ground, or come to the bottom; I swear they shall find no steady rock where they may build their house sure, not cause their memory to be perpetual.  
If men knew the world with his deceit, why do they serve him, if they do not, why do they follow him.  
The world hath this condition, 
The world full of deceits.  to hide much copper under a little gold; under the colour of one truth he telleth us a thousand lies, and with one short pleasure he mingleth ten thousand and displeasures.  
Would ye not take the thief for a fool that would buy the rope wherewith he should be hanged: and the murderer the sword wherewith he should be beheaded: and the traitor that should offer himself in place for to be quartered: the rebel that should disclose himself to be stoned: than are they I swear more fools that know the world and will follow it.  
The ancients in times past did strive which of them could furnish most men; 
Our ancestors riches.  have most weapons; and keep most horses: but now a days they contend who hath the finest wit; who can heap up greatest treasure; and who can keep most sheep. They strived who should keep most men, but in these days who can have most revenues.  
Now it is so, that one having money to buy a lordship, immediately he is made a knight; and when he is made knight, it is not to fight against the enemies in the field; but more freely to commit vices, and oppress the poor at home.  
What profiteth us to desire much, to procure much, to attain to much sith our days are so brief, and our person so frail.  
Men are deceived that think that temporal goods shall remain with them during life.  
I see no greater mishaps to fall to any, than unto them which have the greatest riches: so that we may boldly say, that he alone which is shut in the grave, is in safeguard from the inconstancy of fortune.  
The earth is cold and dry; 
A description of the four elements.  the water cold and moist; the air hot and moist; the fire hot and dry.  
The wicked world is the evil life of the worldlings, where the earth is the desire; fire the covetise; water the inconstancy; air the folly; the stones are the pride; the flowers of trees the thoughts; the deep sea the heart.  
The worldlings and their worldly lives, are called the world: for sins they be called the servants of sin, & must be subjects of the devil.  
Pride, avarice, envy, blasphemy, pleasures, lechery, negligence, gluttony, ire, malice, vanity, and folly: this is the world against which we fight all the days of our life; and where the good are princes of vices, and vices are lords of the vicious.  
This world is our cruel enemy: 
A description of the world.  A deceitful friend that always keepeth us in travel, and taketh from us our rest, he robbeth us of our treasure, and maketh himself to be feared of the good, and is greatly beloved of the evil. It is that which of the goods of others is prodigal; of his own very miserable; the inventor of all vices; and the scourge of all virtues: it is he which entertaineth all his in flattery and fair speech; bringeth men to dissolution; robbeth the renown of those that be dead; and sacketh the good name of those that be alive. This cursed world is he which to all aught to render account, and of whom none dare to ask account.  
He should bear false witness that would say: that in this world there is any thing assured, healthful, & true: as he that would say in heaven there is any thing unconstant, variable, or false.  
I marvel not though the worldlings at every moment be deceived, since superficiously they behold the world with their eyes, and love it profoundly with their hearts, (but if they desired as profoundly) to consider it as they do vainly follow it, they should see very plainly that the world did not flatter them with prosperity, but threaten them with adversity; fo that under the greatest point of the Die which is the size, is hid the least which is the ase.  
The world is of such a condition, that if he let us rest our first sleep, that commonly ere the morning, yea sometimes within an hour after, he waketh us with a new care.  
Suppose that the world doth honour you much, 
Deceit of the world.  flatter you much, visit you oft, offer you great treasures, and give you much: yet it is not because he will give you little and little, but that afterwards he might take it all from you in one day: for it is the custom of the world, that those men which above all men are set before, now at a turn they are farthest behind.  
O filthy world, that when thou dost receive us, thou dost cast us off; when thou dost assemble us, thou dost separate us; when thou seemest to rejoice us, thou makest us sad; when thou pleasest us, how quickly thou dost displease us; when thou exaltest us, how thou humblest us; and when thou dost chastise us, how thou dost rejoice.  
As men be divers in gestures, 
The world a Cater for all kind of people.  so are they much more variable in their appetites: & sith the world hath experience in many years, it hath appetites prepared for all kind of people: for the presumptuous he procureth honours; to the avaricious, he procureth riches; and to those which are gluttons, he presenteth divers meats; the carnal he blindeth with women; the negligent, he feedeth with rest; and thus he doth bait them as fish, and in the end will catch them in the nets of all vices.  
If at the first temptations we had resisted the world, it were impossible that so oftentimes it durst assault us, for of our small resistance, cometh his so great boldness.  
The world hath made us now so ready to his law, 
In serving the world we are made changelings.  that from one hour to another it changeth the whole estate of our life: so that to day he maketh us hath that which yesterday we loved: he causeth us to complain of that which we commended: he maketh us to be offended with that which before we did desire: and to account those our mortal enemies, which before we accepted as our special friends.  
If he did give any perfect or certain thing, we were the rather to serve him: but he giveth them with such condition, that they shall render it to him again, when he shall demand it, and not at the discretion of him that doth possess it.  
The world hath no good thing to give us, but only by lending or by usury: if it be by usury, there is no gain of money, but rather return with restitution of vices: if ye ask whether he hath any virtuous thing in his governance, he will answer that he doth sell such merchandise in his shop, and therefore cannot give that which he hath not for himself.  
If ye exchange any thing with it, he is so subtle to sell, and so curious to buy, that that which he taketh shall be of great measure, and that which he selleth shall want weight.  
They which are in prosperity have no less need of good counsel, than the unhappy hath of remedy.  
When every man thinketh he hath made peace with fortune, than she hath a new demand ready forged.  
Man being born in the world; nourished in the world; living in the world; being a child of the world; & following the world; what is man to hope for of the world, but things of the world?  
Man alone thinketh to eat the flesh without bones; to give battle without peril; to travel without pain, & sail by the seas without danger: but it is impossible for mortal men to live in the world unless they will become subjects to the sorrows of the world.  
We are now come to so great folly, that we forget and will not serve God that created us, nor abstain from the world that persecuteth us.  
O filthy world how far art thou from just; and how far ought they to be from thee which desire to be just, for naturally thou art a friend of novelties and an enemy of virtues.  
How much do we put our trust in fortune; how lewdly do we pass our days; how much blinded in the world; yet for all that we give him so much credit, as though he had never deceived us.  
The world is an ambassador of the evil, and a scourge of the good; a nurse to vices; and a tyrant to virtues; a breaker of peace; a maintainer of war; a table of gluttons; and a furnace of concupiscence; it is the danger of Charybdis where the hearts do perish, and the peril of Scylla where the hearts do waste.  
The men that are borne of women are so evil a generation, and so cruel is the world wherein we live, and fortune so empoisoned with whom we frequent, that we cannot escape without being spurned with his feet; bitten with his teeth; torn with his nails; or empoisoned with his venom.  
If a stranger or neighbour yea our proper brother do envy us, 
Note.  we will never pardon him though he earnestly request it, yet cease we not to follow the world, though he continually persecute us, thus we see that we draw our swords against flies, and will kill the Elephants with needles.  
Some I see which willingly fall; 
Note.  and some which would recover themselves. I find that all do complain but few that will amend.  
Riches, youth, pride, and liberty, are four plagues which poison princes, replenish the common wealth with filth, kill the living, and defame the dead.  
How unhappy are they which are in prosperity, for justly they that be set up in high estate cannot flee from the peril of Scylla, without falling into the danger of Charybdis.  
O miserable world, thou art a sepulchre of the dead; a prison of the living; a shop of vices; a hangman of virtues; an oblivion of antiquity; an enemy of things present; a snare of the rich; a burden to the poor; a house of pilgrims; and a den of thieves.  
O world, thou art a slanderer of the good; a ravener of the wicked; a deceiver; and an abuser of all; and to speak the truth, it is impossible to live contented, much less to live in honour, in the which is most to be lamented, either the evil man advanced without desert, or the good man overthrown without cause.  
The tokens of a valiant captain are wounds of weapons: and the sign of a studious person is the despising of the world.  
Not those that have most knowledge, 
Riches ruleth.  but those that have most riches in the common wealth do command, I doubt whether the divine power hath deprived them, or that the worldly malice hath lost the taste of them.  
O world, world, I know not how to escape thy hands, not how the simple men and idiot defendeth himself out of thy snares, when the sage and wise men withal their wisdom can scarcely set their foot sure on earth, for all that the wise men know, is little enough to defend them from the wicked.  
He only passeth without travel the dangers of life, which banisheth from him the thought of the temporal goods of this world.  
The traitorous world in no one thing beguileth the worldly so much as by feeding them with vain hope, saying, that they shall have time enough to be virtuous.  
The more the world increaseth in years, 
The elder the world is, the worse are the people.  so much the more it is laden with vices.  
The world hath always been in contention, and rest hath always been banished: for if some sigh for peace, others be as desirous of wars.  
O world for that thou art the world, so small is our force, and so great is our debility, that thou willing it, & we not resisting it, thou dost swallow us up in the most perilous gulf, and in the thorns most sharp, thou dost prick us, by the privy ways thou dost lead us, and by the most stony ways thou carriest us, thou bringest us to the highest favourers, to the end that afterward with a push of thy pike thou mightest overthrow us.  
What, 
Burden.  I think I have somewhat in the world, I find that all that I have is but a burden.  
I have proved all the vices of the world for no other intent but to prove if there be any thing wherein men's malice might be satisfied; 
All worldly vices.  and in proving I find, that the more I eat the more I hunger; the more I drink the greater I thirst; the more I rest the more I am broken; the more I sleep the more drowsy I am; the more I have, the more I covet; the more I desire the more I am tormented; the more I procure the less I obtain; finally, I never had so great pain through want, but afterward I had more trouble with excess.   

Pretty sayings in common places.  
THou art such a one as never deserved that one should begin to love, 
Commendation.  or end to hate.  
How much the noble hearts do rejoice in giving to other, 
A good nature.  so much they are ashamed to take service unrewarded, for in giving they become lords, and in taking they become slaves.  
The rashness of youth is restrained with the rains of reason. 
Reason ruleth.   
Although we be wise, 
Frailty of man.  we leave not therefore to be men, dost not thou know that all that ever we learn in our life, sufficeth not to govern the flesh in one hour?  
I am sorry to see thee cast away: 
To him that is overcome with any folly.  and it grieveth me to see thee drowned in so small a water.  
A brother in words, and a cozen in works.  
I rest between the sails of fear, and anchor of hope.  
Though we praise one for valiantness with the sword, 
Diversities of gifts.  we will not praise him therefore for excellency with the pen; although he be excellent with the pen, he is not therefore excellent with the tongue; though he have a good tongue, he is not therefore well learned; & though he be learned, he hath not therefore good renown; and though he have good renown, he is not therefore of a good life; for we are bound to receive the doctrines of many which do write, but we are not bound to follow the lives which they lead.  
When a father passeth out of this present life, and leaveth behind him a child being his heir, they cannot say to him that he dieth; but that he waxeth young in his child, 
The father dying, waxeth young in his child.  because the child doth inherit the flesh, the goods, and memory of the father.  
The desires of young men are so variable, 
Youthly desires.  that they daily have new inventions.  
Men that read much and work little; 
Teachers and not followers.  are as bells which do sound to call others, and they themselves never enter into the church.  
It is an old saying, 
A jewel nothing worth to the ignorant.  that a precious jewel is little regarded, when he that hath it knoweth not the value of it.  
FINIS.