¶ Tho. wyatis translation of Plutarckes book/ of the quiet of mind.   

¶ To the reder.  
It shall seem hard unto the peraventure gentle reader/ this translation/ what for short manner of speech/ and what for divers strange names in the stories. As for the shortness advise it weal and it shallbe the plesaunter/ when thou understandest it. As for the strange names stick not in them/ for who that can take no fruit in it/ without he know clearly every tale that is here touched/ I would he should not read this book.  
Farewell.   

¶ To the most excellent and most virtuous princes Katheryn/ queen of England and of France etc. increase & continuance of moche health and honour.  
The book of Frances Petrarch/ of the remedy of ill fortune/ at the commandment of your highness/ I assayed/ as my power would serve me/ to make into our englyss●. And after I had made a proof of nine or ten Dialogues/ the labour began to seem tedious/ by superfluous often rehearsing of one thing. which tho peradventure in the latin shallbe laudable/ by plenteous diversity of the speaking of it (for I will not that my judgement shall disallow in any thing so approved an author) yet for lack of such diversity in our tongue/ it should want a great deal of the grace. Although/ as me seemeth/ and as saith this Plutarch/ the plentuousness and fair diversity of language/ should not so much be desired in such things/ as the fruits of the advertysmentes of them/ which in my opinion/ this said Plutarch hath handsomely gathered together/ without tediousness of length/ containing the hole effect/ of that your highness desired of Petrarch in his little book/ which he wrote to one of his friends/ of the Quiet of mind/ nerawhyt erring from the purpose of the said Petrarch. which I have made now of late in to our tongue not precisely (I confess) without error as one should have done that had been of perfit learning/ but after my rudeness/ seeking rather the profit of the sentence than the nature of the words. but howsoever it be/ if it may please your highness to accept it/ it shall not only be a defence for the simpleness of the book/ against over busy searchers of other men's actis/ when the good will shall have the allowance of so virtuous a judgement/ but also courage to the simple endeavour of this hand/ toward better entmprises. And though the smallness of the present be great/ in respect of that/ that accordeth to your exellence/ the sentence peraventure shall not be much unacceptable/ if it grieve not your grace to mark it after your accustomed wisdom. pleaseth than your highness to pardon thoverboldness of your most humble slave/ where he presenteth you/ for the good luck of this new year/ with this his simple labour/ and with as much quiet of mind as this book pretendeth/ always praying god to send you thonorable desire of your virtuous heart.  
At Alyngton the last day of Decembre. M.D.xxvij. your most humble subject and slave/ Tho. wyat.   

¶ Of the Quiet of mind.  
I received very late thy letter/ wherein thou exhorts me that I should write sonthing unto the of the quietness of mind and of those things/ in Timeus/ that thou thinkest needeth more exquisite declaration. Truly/ where as Eros my friend was ready to sail towards Rome and I had received hastily of Fundanus the honest man the letters/ & I had not therefore leisure to apply me to that that thou desyredest/ as I would have done/ nor again could I suffer the man to be seen sent fro me with empty hands/ certain chosen things I have taken forth of the quietness of mind/ out of the comentaris that sometime I made. And (as I think) in such declaration thou seeks not the delicacy of saying/ and the piked delight of speech/ and thou hast consideration only of some doctrine/ to be as help for the life to be ordered. & I judge it very well done/ that where thou hast great privalte with princes/ & that not in comen things/ & that in the glori of matters of judgement/ no man is afore thee/ yet for all that thou dasyst not foolishly at the fawning of glory/ that wonders and exaltes thee/ as doth Merops in the tragedy. Ofttimes also thou remember'st that thou hast herd/ that sore toes are not esed with gorgeous shows/ nor the whit thlowe with a ring/ nor the hedach with a crown. For to what purpose is those of money for the eschewing of the sickness of the mind/ or for the easy & sure passage of life? Or whereto serveth the use of glory/ or among courtier's appearance? unless that they to whom these things chance/ can wisely use them when they have them: and again when they want them/ over suffer the desires of them. and what any other thing is that/ than reason accustomed and fore thought/ to restrain quickly/ & not to suffer to stray the apasionate part of the mind/ wanting reason/ when it breaketh forth/ and to suffer it to forbear when it is overtwharted/ with assailing affections. Therefore/ as Xenophon bad men in prosperous things chiefly to remember the gods/ and to worship them than best/ that when case required with bet● hope what so ever they need they might ask of them/ thereby contented and merciful. So those principles that are most meet for to appease troubles/ must be taken and received afore hand/ only of them that are hold minded/ that long afore prepared/ they may be long most profitable. For like as feyrs dogs raging at every voice/ yet at one voice that they are used to and know/ they appease themself. So the wood affections of the mind/ it is no little business to order and appease/ unless the principles for that purpose used/ be familiar and ready at hand/ that may clearly appease them/ when they are troubled and moved. furthermore/ they that are of opinion not to do many things/ nor ●uat●ly nor openly/ for the quiet passing of life. These first of all will make unto us/ quietness of mind of a dear price/ as to be bought/ with sluggardy and slothfulness/ and as though he were sick/ they warn every man/ as it were with this word/ lie still wretch in thy bed. Truly where as it is an hurtful medicine to the body that deadly sluggardy/ nerawhit better physician for the sickness and trouble of the mind/ is sloth and tenderness/ & faint heart forsaker of friends/ kin/ and country. Besides that it is false/ that vnac●yfe men lead a quiet life/ for else it must be that the life of women were more quietous than that of men/ as they that sit watching at home/ occupied in huswifely occupations. And yet when so moch/ as the north wind can not trouble the young maidens/ as Hesiodus saith/ the diseses of the mind/ the troubles/ the passion of an ill thought/ by jealousy/ superstition/ ambition/ and vain glory/ whereof no man can attain the number/ creep nevertheless/ in to the house of their occupation. Laertes living twenty years in the country (as it is said) only with an old woman to serve him of his meat and drink/ fled from his country and princely palace/ & had nevertheless sadness and frowning debate in company. what if that same/ nothing to do/ hath troubled many from the right order of the mind? as saith Homer by Achilles/ that he sat among the ships following his ire/ with firm purpose/ flying from the fight/ & the worthy counsels of the nobles and the people/ and dyverting the name of men unactyfe/ he faileth in his heart/ and again straight he seeketh the battles/ and steereth himself in the cruel strifes of Mars. Therefore/ when he could not suffer himself to wither in idleness/ he saith angrily/ I sit like a deed lump of earth/ as the keeper of the ships. Nor yet Epycure the alower of voluptousnesse/ is not their auctor/ that are other ambitious or desirous of glory by nature/ that they should give them to idleness/ but unto the governance of commynaltees/ as nature leadeth them. for men that are borne to business/ can not suffer with even and untroubled mind to be delved/ of that they most desired: Although like a fool/ he calleth them to a common wealth/ that can not hold themself from it/ and not rather than that are meet for the rule of it. Nor truly the surety and trouble of the mind/ aught not to be measured/ with multitude or scarsty of businesses. For to overslip honest things/ is no less displeasant & troublous than (as we have afore said) to do foul things. But then also that have chosen one manner of life to be void from trouble/ as some do the life of these husbandmen/ some of single men/ and some of kings. Menander warneth with these words/ that they err far (as they say) out of the way. I think o Phania that these rich men that need not to make eschange for gain/ nor to plain in the night/ nor in turning them up and down/ to say often alas/ sleep the sweet and soft sleeps. but when he came and perceived the rich men/ as well as the needy to be troubled/ it is no marvel/ qd he/ they are of kin & both borne at a burden/ life & trouble. for it is the fellow of voluptuous life/ & of that brought up by need it increaseth. And truly/ as fearful and sick folke● out of a little boat leap in to a great ship and from thence again in to a galy/ thinking ever to be better/ till they perceive themself nothing the near/ & (as who saith) clean done/ as they that carry the collar and fearfulness everywhere with them/ so to take another & another kind of life/ can not deliver the mind from cumber and troubles/ such as are unknowlege of things/ unconsydred adventure/ neither to know nor to can use a right things present/ for a matter that is happened. These things trouble the rich aswell as the needy/ and vexeth with sadness the single men as well as the married. And for these causes/ many that think much wealth is in open places/ can not suffer a secret restful life. for these self same causes/ it repenteth many/ of that they have begun/ that with great labour have thrust themself in to the courts of kings. It is an unpleasant thing of sick men/ as jon saith/ for the wife troubleth them/ they blame the phecisyens they be angry with the bed/ ye and their friend noyeth them visiting them/ and again departing displeaseth them. After that when the disease forsaketh them and that by returned temper health cometh making allthing merry and pleasant/ so that he on the ton day that could not broke an egg nor fine bred/ on the next day eateth hungerly whetin bred & cresses. such effect & strength is there in reasoning/ for to change each purpose of life/ for the happy passing of the same. Alexander when he heard Anaxarchus argue that there were infinite worlds/ it is said that he wept/ and when his friends asked him what thing had happened him to be wept for. Is it not to be wept for/ qd he/ sins they say there be infyn●te worlds/ & we are not yet lord of one? Crates contrariwise/ wearing an old cloak lined with sport and laughter/ as in holidays till his last. Again to Agamemno● it was grievous that he ruled so many/ when he said/ Thou shalt know Attrides Agamennon/ whom above all men jupiter exerciseth and troubleth with labours. Diogenes/ when he was on the stone to be sold/ he scoffed with the crier that should advance the sale/ and when he bade him arise/ he would not/ saying at the last/ what if thou shouldest have sold a fish? And So●rates in his bondis did dispute of wisdom among his pursuers. Lo on the otherside/ Pheton climbing in to heaven/ optayning wepingly/ that his father should take him his char and his horse to rule. Truly as a show may be wrested to the fashion of a divers foot/ but not the foot likewise to the fashion of the wrested show/ So do the passions of the thought make each manner of life that is offered them conformable & like to themself/ nor unto them that have choose the best life custom maketh it not pleasant/ as some say/ but rather wisdom maketh the best life to be also most pleasant. Therefore the well of surety of the mind/ springing in ourself/ let us assay to make most pure & clear/ that those things that give us foreign things & chanceable/ we may make meet & according/ in suffering with great uprightness of the mind. For truly it accordeth not to be wroth again things that chance amiss. for our anger nothing pertaineth to them. but he that can amend by craft ill chances/ he trebly doth more laudably. Therefore Plato compareth man's life with the dice/ in the which the best cast is to be of the dicer desired most. but how soever it happen/ there should be a aware heed/ that he use right that that the chance giveth/ whereof it is to perceive that the tone is not in our power/ that is the chance of the dice/ the other is/ if we be wise/ that we take with even mind/ that that chance giveth/ & to give to each of them his place/ that that which chanceth well/ may be most profit/ and that lest hurt that happeth overtwhartly. But uncunning men/ and ignorant how to lead their life like sickly men/ that can neither suffer h●te nor cold/ as in prosperity they are with an high forehead outrageous/ keeping no measure. so are they in adversity/ with knit & bend brows foully distempered. So are they troubled of both/ or rather in both/ of themself/ and likewise in those that are taken for good things. Theodorus that was called Athens/ was often wont to say/ ●hat he wretched words to his hearers with his right hand/ & they took them with their life hand. Foles oftentimes when fortune offereth her right hand/ uncomely turning themself/ set her on their life hand. wise men do better/ that like as bees make honey a right sweet thing/ out of dry time/ an herb of very bite taste/ so of very unhandsome things/ oft times they choose out some handsome and prefytable things to them. which thing would be much thought on/ & laboured with great exercise of the mind. For as he that cast a stone at a froward dog/ when he missed the dog/ and it his step mother unware/ It is not much amiss qd he. So may we mend and turn another way fortune/ when she chanceth otherwise than we would. Diogynes because of his exile/ left his country/ it was not so greatly ill/ for it gave him occasion of learning philosophy. Zenon of Citius that had but one ship/ when he herd that it was perished/ the mariners the merchandise/ and (as they say) every crumb/ Fortune/ qd he/ thou dost very well with me/ that drives me to mine old cloak/ and to the porch of philosophy. what therefore shall let us/ that we may not follow them? Thou art fallen from some rule or authority/ thou shalt live in the country. applying thy private business/ with great compass assaying to advance thyself in the prince's favour thou art refused/ thou shalt live surely every where/ with no business laid unto the. Again thou art tangled with many cares and businesses/ warm water doth not cheryssh so much/ tender membres (as saith Pyndarus) as honours and glory joined with power/ doth make labour sweet/ and sufferable. But some offence doth trouble thee/ of backbiting/ of envy/ or nouhhty slander/ the best remedy is with the muses/ or in some place of learning to suffer over/ as it happened unto Plato/ as in a cruel tempest/ when he was taken in to the favour of Deny s● Therefore it is of no little effect/ for the quietness of mind/ diligently to mark noble and famous men/ if they have suffered any like thing/ by those same causes/ as by example/ want of children maketh the sad/ Look on the roman kings/ of whom never a one dying/ left his reign to his child. poverty/ thou cannot suffer with even mind/ who than hadst thou liefer be of all the Boetians/ rather than Epaminondas/ or of all the romans/ than Fabricius? But set case thy wife be not chaste/ knowest thou not thepigram of Agys in Delphos? Hast thou not herd how Alcibyades defiled Time a his wife/ and how she was wont to name the child that she bore/ privily to her maidens/ Alcibiades? yet that letted not Agys/ to be a very worthy and a noble man/ no more than unchaste daughter of Stylphon did let him to live the merylyst of all the philosophers of his tyme. which shame when Wetrocles laid unto him/ is it my fault or my don ●his? qd he/ thy doughts qd tother/ but ●hy misfortune/ how can that be? qd he/ are not faults fallings? yes qd t'other/ and fallings/ are not they also the errors/ of them that they are the fallings of? true qd tother/ and what be errors? are they not the misfortunes of them/ that they be errors of? with such a soft & reasoning peaceable speech he taught the vain checkis of the dogged man/ to be but trifling ●arkingꝭ. Lo now/ there are many/ whom not only the vices of their friends and kinsfolk/ doth vex/ but in god name/ they also of their enemies. for scolding/ anger/ envy/ follies/ & cumbrous rivalries ●ar the foulyst spots of them that they be in. yet they trouble fools/ like as the anger of neighbours or thiportunat famyliers/ or the naughty wits of servants/ wherewithal I think thou be oft-times incued. And as it is in Sophocles/ the phisiciens wassh away the bitter collar/ with a bitter medicine/ so thou (not as aparteyneth thee) again their diseses/ and ill affections of the mind/ art angry/ and answerest them with like sourness of the mind/ whithe things that thou dost/ a● not moved with good & thrifty manners/ as most meetest instruments/ but for the most ꝙ●e with sharp and froward conditions. & truly for to correct these things/ when it is more than thou canst do/ ●o is it not easy by any means. So that if thou canst use these things when they grow/ no nother wise than these surgeons use their sharp scraping instruments/ than if thou use them thus/ bearing always with thee/ as case requireth/ softness and measure/ truly thou shalt no more vex thyself/ with others wantonness & folly/ than thou shalt be gladded with the conscience of thine own affection. for thou shalt think they do it not without a cause/ no more than dogs when they bark/ do naughtily of their nature. or else following such weakness and feebleness of mind/ if thou care not to be troubled with others ills/ they shall deceive the wretchedly/ daily sucking up many troubles/ flowing unto thee/ as though thou sa●est in a low bottom. what? many philosophers have reproved pity/ with which we are moved in beholding measurable men/ thinking that it is thooffice of a good man to succour neighbours/ that be oppressed in misery/ & not to be sor● therewith/ or with slackness of a low mind/ to give place to fortune. ye/ and that that every man will say is more/ they would not suffer us/ if we perceive ourself to have done amiss/ or to be of naughty mind/ therefore to be troubled in our thought/ & to be sorry/ for without soriness/ such things should be mended/ which when it is thus/ consider well/ how beastly it is to suffer ourself to be any thing wrath or angry/ if they that we have dealt with all do not gently & kindly with us. Truly I fear me my friend/ least the love of ourself deceive us/ nor the frowardness of ill speech vexeth so much the mind/ as we prefer it over moche deserving of ourselves/ for vehemently/ as it were with dazing/ to be affectionate to certain things/ and uncomely to desire and follow them/ or again to be against them & abhor them/ no marvel if these bring strives and offences among men/ when divers men take it diversly/ either these to be taken from them/ or that they are fallen in to the other/ but if any man/ as chance requireth/ useth himself with measure to be aplyable/ which way so ever he turneth him/ he surely learneth/ with handsome esynesse to haunt the company of men. Now let us take our purpose that we left of the self things/ likewise as to them that are sick of agues/ all things tasted/ seemeth straight/ bitter/ and loathsome/ till they have seen other take the same things/ without any token o● unrepentant savour/ which they loathly have cast up/ where at last they lay the fault in themselves & in the sickness/ and not in the meet or drink. So we/ if we consider other that use with great uprightness of the mind and merry cheer/ that that we pass not without playntfull heaviness/ must needs leave to be so anger with the self things. But truly for to keep constancy of mind in adversity/ it is of great effect/ not to forget with a winking eye (as they say) those things that sometime hath happened haply unto us/ as we would have wished/ and with due meddling to way the prosperous things/ with every ill chance. But where/ as wear wont to turn our eyes/ that be dazed with beholding bright things/ unto fresh and green colours/ for to refresh them/ contrary wise/ we turn our mind to heavy things/ and by force constrain it to the remembrance of things most of repentance/ and we pull it away again the will of it/ from agreeable and sufferable things. And here I remember I may bring in meetly/ that that once was spoken to a busy fellow/ meddling in that that pertained nothing to him/ what the mischief ungracious fellow/ thou se●st other men's vices with kites eyes/ & thine own thou lettis pass/ with winking owls eyes? To what purpose good man dost thou consider so diligently thy harms/ & renews them always with busy remembrance (and hast no regard to that welfulness that is present? And like as these surgeon boxinges sucks out of the flesh the worst blood/ so dost thou/ all the worst of thy things/ gather in to thyself/ ●●ra whit better than Chius the merchant/ that where he sold much wine of the best/ he gathered to himself/ the sour and deed wine. whose servant when he ran away from him/ and one asked him for what cause he forsook his master/ answered/ for because when he had good things in his hands/ he sought for ill. Many like unto him forsaking sweet drinks/ give themself to sharp & bitter drinks. So did not Aristyppus lean unto the heavy balance of harm/ but wretched himself to the lighter. He when he had lost a pleasant manner/ asked of one of them that showed themself most sorry and angry for his fortune. Knowest thou not/ qd he/ that thou hast but one little house/ and I have yet three good fermes left me? yes qd tother. Than should I/ qd he/ rather be sorry for thy fortune? for it is like madness to be sorry for things lost/ not rejoicing in things that be safe. And as little children/ when one hath taken from them one trifle among many/ casting away all the rest/ they weep and cry. so likewise we troubled by fortune in one thing complaining and lamenting make all other things to us unprofitable. But one will say/ what have we? ye/ rather what have we not? He hath glory/ he a house/ another a wife as he would wish/ and he a faithful friend. Antipater of Tarsis dying/ when he reckoned on his fingers/ the things that he had had in his life/ he● forgot not the good see passage/ that he had out Cilicia to Athens. & pardy/ these common & light things are not to be passed/ and there is consideration to be had of them/ that we live/ that we are in health/ that we see the son/ that we have no war nor rebellion/ that the ground is arable/ & that the see may be sailed with little labour. ye/ and for the last/ that we have liberty to speak and to hold our tongue/ to be busy & idle. Truly the possession of these things/ shall give unto us/ a plentous matter of quieting the mind/ if we fasten in our mind th'image of the absence and of the desires of them/ thereby warning ourselves (how health is much desired of sick men/ peace of them that are cumbered with war/ how much desired unto a streyer abroad/ and unto an unnoble man is glory/ and toptayne such a name in such a city. again how displeasant it is/ to lose it when thou hast it. And yet I think not/ that any of these things or like should be so great/ & to be desired/ that when it is lost/ nothing shallbe safe. for it should be no whit more esteemed for that it leaveth to be. Nor they should not be possessed/ as so worthy things/ nor kept with such business/ watching busily/ least we be spoiled of them as so precious thiges/ that we should therefore set light/ and not regard things that we have safe/ as trifles. for these would be used/ and the fruit taken of them with gladness/ most for that cause/ that when chance happeneth/ we may suffer more peaceably and temperately/ the loss of them. But truly/ as Archesilaus said/ some think it a great thing/ with diligent in tent of mind and of eyes/ to behold others inditings/ pictures and images/ exquisitely/ as they come to their hands and they not regarding their own life/ though they that behold others chances/ & look upon him that hath many considerations & advertysmentes/ and they not unpleasant/ like these adulterers/ that loathing their own wives/ follow other men's/ err (as the proverb saith) all the world out of the way. For it maketh moche toward the constant state of the mind. first to esteem himself/ & his own things/ and the particulars of one/ if not/ at the lest to turn th'intent from consideration of courser things/ ●at as the common sort of menlin divers manner to wonder on th●/ whom fortune hath exalted to the height of things/ when she listed to sport. as by example/ they that are in prison think bondmen happy that are loosed/ they them that be free/ they that be free think them that have the law of cities in their hands happy/ and they rich men/ & rich folk provosts & governors/ and they kings/ and at the last kings/ the god's/ whom (I had nigh said) it irketh also of their godhead/ outcept they might have power of thunder and lightning/ so that where they can not be even with their superiors/ they can not (as they say) rest with in their bonds. I care not for the goods of rich Gygis/ qd Thasius/ nor yet I wonder greatly at them/ nor I envy the marvelous works of the gods/ nor yet gape I greatly after any kingdom/ for fer fer are these things from my eyes/ said this Thasius. Lo now contrariwise such another as Chius/ or another Galates or Bithynus/ not content that he hath gotten glory & may stership among the cytezins/ but on god's name he must ask pleyningly to be a senator/ when thou hast given him that he must be provost/ and set case that thou grant him that/ than must he be consul and when at last thou hast put to that/ all is not worth a pe●s/ outcept he be pronounced the first. And what other thing I pray the is this/ but in gadring causes of unkindness again fortune/ to torment himself/ and himself perpetually to punish himself? Truly a man well assured of his mind/ though one or other of mortal people (where as we are six. C. times/ hundred thousand seers of the son/ and children of the earth) pass him in glory of name/ or abundance of riches/ sitteth not abject or lamentable with wring hands (as they say) but rather where he seeth himself better handled/ than an infinite multitude of undone men/ as often as he cometh abroad/ he rejoiceth in his fortune. In the assays of Olympias/ there was no victor that might refuse to meddle with who so ever came first/ having no liberty to choose his match. In our life the state of things giveth liberty to each man/ that compareth himself & his fortune/ with many/ & with the fortune of many/ to have an high and an upright mind/ & to make him thereby to be seen and wondered at to other/ rather than himself to wonder at other/ so that he be not so foolish to compare him to Briarcus or to Hercules. So when thou marveling/ seest some great man carried in a litter/ let down thine eyes/ & look upon the bearers thereof. Again when thou shalt wonder on Xerxes/ as very happy/ when he passed the straitꝭ of Hellespont/ with a brigge shaped of ship would/ behold also them/ some their noses & some their ears smitten of and mangled/ by reason of the brig broken/ with shaking of the furor of the sees rage's/ breaking in by Athon/ and believe that they praise with great commendation/ the and thy fortune. Socrates when one of his friends told him/ that all thing was dear in the town/ for wine of Chia was at a pound/ and purple at three pound/ and honey at .v. shillings the gallon/ took him by the hand and led him in to the meyle house/ it is sold/ qd he/ for an halfpenny the half bushel/ therefore untell is good cheap. from thence he brought him in to the oil house/ it is sold/ qd he/ for two brass pens two gallons/ all thing than is not dear in the town. So likewise we/ if we here any man say that our fortune is bare & wretched/ for that we have neither the consulship nor other mastership/ we may say unto him/ that our fortune is fair and goodly/ and that we go not from door to door/ and that among porters and bearers/ we weary us not with burdens/ nor like flatterers/ are constrained to be as parasites to princes. Although (for we are now come to that madness/ that each of our lives hangeth upon other men's/ more than our own/ and that our nature is so altered/ in to a certain unkind and envious affection/ not so much to glad in our own/ as to be troubled with other folks wealths) if thou look not only upon those wonders/ and famous things in them/ whom thou weenest very blessed/ & (as they say) in iovis lap/ but the curtain & the fair travers drawn/ letting pass their glory and utter appearance/ if aswell thou look with in them/ thou shalt truly find many inwardis/ sour & troublous. Pyttacus/ whom the sure fame noiseth to have been endued with wisdom/ fortitude/ and justice/ when he was cheringgestꝭ that he had/ it is said his wife came and angrily overthrew the table/ wherewith when he saw his gests abashed each of you/ qd he/ is troubled with some ill/ I am in this state always very well. This man that was deemed abroad to be very happy/ when so ever he entered his threshold/ he seemed to be a wretch/ I say not that he was one/ where his wife had all and ruled princely/ where oftimes & always he needed to fight with her. Many things do trouble you/ nothing doth trouble me. Many such like things do cleave unto glory/ unto riches/ ye and unto a kingdom. but truly of the ignorant multitude unꝑceyved/ for the pomp is drawn/ behind the which those things lie hidden. Happy Attrides glory of greeks/ everywhere mild fortune the favoureth/ while she exalteth her child. This outward blessedness to be compassed with wepyns/ horse/ and arms/ let us here likewise/ the repenting voice of an ill troubled mind/ crying against such excess of glory. Mighty jupiter hath tangled me with grievous chances/ & in another place. O happy & blessed that far out of danger/ unnoble/ and unglorious/ have ●assed their lives. By these and such like declarations/ it may be sensably parceyned/ the playntfull unquietness of the mind/ scolding with fortune and casting away itself with woodring at other/ & to rise for top ●sse itself/ and the own things. For of troth it breaketh marvelously the constant & quiet state of the mind/ with higher intent to strive above the power to get any thing as to sail with greater sails than proportion/ as when hope shineth never so little/ promising foolishly unto ourselves unmeasurable and great things/ & than when chance followeth not/ we accuse wicked fortune and our destiny/ when rather we should damn ourselves of folly/ as it were to be angry with fortune/ that thou canst not shoot an arrow with a plou/ or hunt an hare with an ox/ and that some cruel god should be against them/ that with vain endeavour/ hunt an hart with a drag net/ and not that they attempt to do those impossibilytes/ by their own madness and foolishness. Surely the cause of this error/ is the noughtis love of ourself. For men/ overmoch deserving of themself/ where as with great strife they allow themself best/ enhanced with pride/ leave nothing unassayed. For it is not enough unto them to be rich & eloquent/ and among merry & gladsome feasts. but that they must be familiars of princes and in authority/ but that they must have the best horse & the best doggis and (if god will) the best cockerels and quails/ or else they can not be quiet in they mind. Denys th'elder thought it not enough to be the greatest tyrant in his time/ but evil content also/ that he was not so good as the poet Phyloxenus in poetry/ and as Plato in the c●●ft of reasoning/ moved with ire/ him he put in to a dongion/ and tother he sold/ and banished in to Aeginas. So did not Alexandre/ that where he was greatly moved with Brison/ with whom he stro●e in swiftness of the chart/ with deliberation ●emed pleasant/ forbearing his own right. Therefore Homer spoke it very well by Achilles/ such a one as was none among the greeks in battle/ and after he saith/ but there were other that were more eloquent. Megabysus of Per●●a on a time when he came in to Appelles' shop/ he began to babble I wots not what of the craft of painting. Appelles' that could not suffer his follies/ afore/ qd he/ that thou showdest thyself with thy words/ I had a good opinion in thee/ by reason of thy gold & purple/ auaūcy●g thy silence/ now the prentices and boys that grind me my colours/ do mock thy babbling. There is that thy●ke that the Stoyik philosophers do mock us/ in discribyng a wise man af● their fashion/ not only to be wise/ just/ and strong/ but also an orator/ an emperor/ a poet/ ye● & a king. and they are not ashamed to ascribe all these names unto him/ although if they ꝑceyu● themself in despair of them/ they are always ill content/ which how it accordeth with reason/ they may see when that they know the gods contented/ each with his godhead to be satisfied/ as to be called Enyalius/ that hath authority over the furor of bataylc/ another Mantous/ that is over prophecies. another Cerdous/ that is ruler of lucre. So that in Homer/ jupiter forbiddeth to Venus' werly matters/ as nothing pertaining to her/ & biddeth her to take heed to marriage matters. Besides this/ somthynges of them that seem to us to be desired/ accord not together of their own nature/ as by example. He that desires the study of saying & of learning/ he must be quiet and without business/ again auctorites and familyarite with princes● are wont to make businesses/ & to bring often combraunces. Plentous use of wine and flesh/ maketh a man strong & mighty/ and the mind frailer and weaker. Again/ unmeasurable diligence to increase/ or busy trouble for to keep/ agreeth for the gadring of riches. A other side/ contempt & despising/ is a great instrument for the beginning of philosophy/ and almost the first and chefyst exercise of it. So all things is not for every man/ but he that will obey the poesy of Apollo/ must first know himself/ and so take advise of his own nature/ & as she leadeth to take an order of life/ rather than passing from one to another/ to force & constrain his nature. An horse for the cart/ an ox is meet for the plough/ after a ship that saileth/ a dolphin is meet to swim/ and to hunt the bore a ●cirse dog. So that if one be troubled/ for that a mighty lion may not be nourished in a woman's lap/ as well as a little whelp/ surely he is a great fool. And he is ne●awhit wiser/ that will write of the world & seek the nature of things/ both after Empedoclis fashion or Plato's/ or Democritus together/ or to lie with a rich old woman/ as Euphorion/ and to be like those that were wont to banquet late with Alexander/ as Medius/ and think it uncomely and scant to be suffered/ outcept he may by riches be as notable as Ismenia/ & by virtue/ as noble as Epaminonda. Ronners when they have their game/ be content that wrestlers have their reward/ if thou have gotten/ saith Solon/ the town of Sparta/ order it with laws & decrees. we will not change with you/ saith the same man/ utue for riches/ sins th'one is our own & stable/ & riches is but chanceable/ & passeth from one to another. Strato when he heard that Menedemus had more scholars than he. Lo/ qd he/ is it not to be marveled/ if many had rather be washed than perfumed? Aristotle writing to Antipater/ it is meet saith he/ to be as glorious for Alexander/ and to be considered/ not only to reign over many people/ but also to have beside other/ a right opinion of godly things/ so that they that under this manner/ call their glad things glorious/ and not so little to be esteemed/ they with out doubt shall not be troubled/ with wondering at strange things. yet now when none of us sees a vine bear figs/ nor an olive bear grapes/ we brawl with ourself nevertheless/ and with ungentle greediness oppress ourselves/ & are so weary of ourselves/ outcept we may attain to the highest degree/ both of richmen and of learned men/ both at home & in the wars/ both of philosophers and of warriors/ ye and both of flatterers & of them that by trusty and free plainness/ are known to be true/ and at last/ both of nygardꝭ & wasters. Although that we see nature to tech us marvelously. For as it is seen by nature divers beasts to feed for their living diversly/ nor that she would that all should be nourished with s●edes or with flesh/ or with roots/ but as they are divers to eat divers meats/ so hath the same nature given to mankind divers orders of living/ as pasturing/ ploughing/ fouling/ and fishing. we must therefore each of us choose that/ that we know is most meetest for us/ and with all our martyr give us to that/ & to part from the possession of that that we perceive pertaineth to another/ or else it is to no purpose that Hesiodus said. The potter envieth the potter/ and over the smiths craft his fellow is envious. Truly now men are not led with envy of the craft or order of their fellows/ but rich men with envy of learned men/ nobles of rich men/ men of law/ of deceivers/ and of players and of tumblers/ and at the last/ free and noble men of ancient famyles dazing for wonder at the good fortunes of men of bondage in the courts of kings/ while they think that all their own fortunes are to be loathed/ they trouble themself/ & with no little cure of mind kill themself. Surely that every man hath coffers & receipts/ and as who saith springs/ of surety & trouble in his own thought/ and Homer's tons of good & ill/ not as he said in iovis door/ but with in his own mind/ the diversity of men proveth greatly/ whom we see by affections of the my●de to be diversly tempered. for fools let good things pass though they be present/ and regard them not when they perish/ so moche doth their thoughts gape greedily after things to come. contrariwise/ men of wit with sharp remembrance/ reducing themself to things that be present/ make those things that yet are not/ to be at hand. For that that is at hand and present/ offering itself to be taken in on only instant/ after that unremembered/ seemeth unto fools neither to be ours/ nor to partein to us. and as the roper that is painted in Pluto's house/ as moche as he did wretch out of his basket in to his rope/ he suffered foolishly an ass that stood by him to eat/ no notherwise doth the unkind & slothful forgetting of many/ setting aside the commodities of things past/ the worthy do● deeds/ the noble acts/ the pleasant idleness/ the merry and gladsome company/ & forgetting and scraping out all the delight of the life/ suffereth not their life to be all one facyoned and weved together ● with the things past & the things present/ dividing yesterdays life from that of to day/ & that from that of to morrow/ allthing do● they make vndo●/ with the wearing out of their remembrance. Truly they that in the scoles of philosophers took away encresynges of bodies/ as vanisshing substance by waist/ they only in their words made each of us/ another & another than ourselves. But they that contain not things passed/ as though memory failed/ nor again remembreth them/ they do not now in words/ but in very deed/ make themself daily more needy & more void/ gaping always on to morrow/ as though things of last year/ of late/ & of yesterday/ pertained nothing to them/ & as though they had never chanced unto them. So that the constant state of the mind/ by this manner is troubled. And even as flies slip of when they creep upon smooth glasses/ & in rough & rugged places they cleave easily/ so men sliding from gladsome and pleasant things/ hold fast the remembrance of heavy things. And like as at Olinthus/ theridamas is a place they say/ where in these horned flies be taken/ and when they be in/ they can not get out again/ but a great while flying up and down with in/ making many circles in vain/ they die at last. so men enwrapped in the remembrance of ills/ can never after get forth nor get succour. Therefore as painters are wont in tables to underlay dim colours to the eyes/ and to en●lyne and draw fair and bright colours upon them so should men in their own minds/ all heavy and dark chances/ overcover and overthrow with glorious & fair chances/ worthy to be remembered. for things past can not clearly be fordone/ nor be again afterward/ by man only. For so variable/ divers and reboundable/ is the tune of this world/ as of an harp/ nor in mortal things/ is there any thing that is pure/ clear/ & simple. But as music standeth by high and low sounds/ and grammar by letters/ vowels & mutes/ and that he is not a musycien or a gramarien/ whom eitherlyke of these doth offend/ but he that can use them & temper them most accordingly/ no notherwise it seemeth/ that he wisely hath established his life/ that most divers chances contrary among themself/ hath learned to mingle handsomely/ weighing prosperity with adversity. for clearly to set apart/ good or ill/ mortal commodity will not suffer/ but it behoveth to make a temper with both/ if we will determine right of these things. It is not therefore according/ in the tone of these to plain/ & fainting in the mind/ to fall down as it were under to heavy a burden/ but the power and thimpressionimpression of every worst chance/ to repulse with the remembrance of better things/ always wrapping up discomodites incommodities/ as it were in a napkin/ to make the tenor of the hole life/ made & gathered with prosperities & adversytes/ as a certain accord/ tempered with cunning reason. And truly/ not as Menander thought/ a man hath as soon as he is borne/ a good spirit/ as beginner of his life & teacher of right living/ but rather as Empedocles thought/ two spirits of divers condition/ to whom he giveth divers & many names doth receive us assoon as we come in to the light/ from thenceforth given unto them/ as it were almost by right of service. He said that our generation did receive the seedꝭ of all these affections/ & that therefore the draft of our life was not even and level/ but rather brackish & sour/ & therefore the wise man should have the best things in his desire/ & look for the worst/ & in the temper of them both use of neither part to much. Nor yet shall he come pleasantly to to morrow/ as Epicurus saith/ that with great debating doubteth whither he shall live to it/ but riches/ glory/ power/ & authority/ gladeth & rejoiceth such men most/ that with contrary things a totherside/ if case hap/ can be as good & as upright. For truly vehement appetit of any thing/ hath always fere his fellow of losing it/ that dulleth the gladness/ & maketh it more to be desired/ as when flame is resisted with great wind. whom truly reason hath taught assuredly & unferfully thus to say to fortune/ if thou give it I shallbe rizt glad/ if thou take it again/ I shallbe indifferent. this man that can thus use him self/ without marvel/ must nedis use things that happen pleasantly/ and not be pulled from thence with fear of that loss running in the thought. Anaxagoras when he heard that his son was deed/ I knew qd he/ when I begot him that he should die/ & I have suffered over that awaiting. this affection of Anaxagoras/ is as much to be followed of us/ as wondered at. Surely we may stay forthwith each misfortune/ I knew I had slypy riches/ not nailed with six penny nail/ as they say in my possession/ and that I had them/ but to use them. I knew well enough that they that gave me power/ might also take it from me. I knew that my wife was wise/ but that she was also a woman ● and for the last I knew that my friend was a man/ that is to say/ a lively thing ready of nature to be depraved/ as Plato oft said. Truly he that compareth thus the reasons of his affections/ & buildeth him such rampires of reason/ if ought happen other wise than he would/ or overthwartly/ yet is it not to him sudden/ and where as he never admitteth those comen thinges● I would never have went it/ I was in great hope/ I never thought it would be thus/ there truly doth he fordo the unevynnesse of a sterting or glytteriug heart/ & of one that was troubled and moved/ he maketh forthwith to himself/ one peaceable and constant. Carneades was wont to warn men most in prosperity of adversity/ for that every sudden things nature is to be received all with grudging of the mind/ & as a manner melting. How great apart is now Macedony/ of the roman Empire? yet Perses when he lost it/ not only accused fortune with foul complaints/ but seemed also to divers/ most infortunate & wretched of all men. Look on other side/ Emilius when he had overcome him/ parting from the country/ giving place in the lordship of the see and of the land to the right successor/ was received with the garlands/ and rejoicings of all men/ and in the sacrifice extolled unto heaven with praises/ and not undeserved/ but most deserved. For he remembered himself to have gotten a chanceable kingdom/ the to thereby unwened and unforthought chance was put from the height of his kingdom. Me thinketh Homer teacheth with a proper example/ how much more hurtful those things are that strike suddenly. Uli●es at his return home/ wept at the sudden death of his dog/ and not to his wife that sat by him and wept. for in coming/ consydringe the weeping image of his wife/ he had subdued the affection that else now would have broken out/ and by former shitting of the mind/ had reduced it in to his own power/ and was troubled with the unforethought death of the dog/ for that in the sudden thing he had no space/ to let the power of his affection. to conclude shortly/ things that chance against our minds/ are scant & herdly suffered/ partly by nature/ and partly we see they are grievous/ by corrupt custom and naughty opinion/ and they be the most part. it is of great effect against them/ to have at hand this sentence of Menander. Thou hast suffered no great grief/ unless thou make it so thyself/ for what toucheth it thee/ if it neither strain thy flesh/ nor reach to thy soul/ as by example/ thunnobleness of thy father/ the adultery of thy mother/ the dignity of the first place taken from thee/ the reward of thy victory bereft thee/ what ꝑteyn these things to thee? for truly though these things happen/ it should not let the in thy body nor in thy mind to be well/ ye & right well. Against these things that by nature doth something offend/ as sicknesses/ hurtis/ & dethiss of kinsfolk/ this must be set. alas/ wherefore alas? for we have suffered nothing/ that pertaineth not to man to suffer. For there is no speech that sooner rebuketh thaffectionate part of the mind/ when it is drawn overtwhartly with affections/ & when it snatcheth the bit of reason in the teeth/ than that that warneth us of our comen & natural necessities/ unto which necessity man is born/ & entangled as the body groweth/ which shall give unto striving fortune/ a knot/ sure of all other things/ that are most chief & greatest. They say Demetrius when he sacked the town of Megarēsis● asked of Stylpo if any of his go●des was taken from him? to whom he answered. I saw no body take away mine/ for where as fortune hath suffered/ all her things to be taken from her/ yet have we no such things in us/ as neither the grekis can do nor suffer. it is not therefore meet so much to forsak nature/ as having no strength nor sufferance/ to match fortunes violence. where as we know right well/ that that/ that in man may be hurt with fortune/ is but a little/ and the worst part of us frail & overthrown with every impression/ by dainty tenderness/ and that we ourself have the power over the better parts/ wherein be set those greatest & good things/ as in an unslypper place/ and where also true glory/ learnings/ & studies pertaining to utue have their being/ neither mortal nor byreveable by no strength. thus I say/ knowing ourselves of unuyncible mind/ for trusting to ourselves/ it becometh us to be assured again things to come/ & to say that to fortune/ that Socrates feigning did say by Auitus & Melitus his accusers/ truly qd he/ to the judges Auytus and Melitus may slay me/ but to do me hurt or displeasure/ they can not. for though fortune might overthrow him with divers sicknesses/ take from him his riches or accuse him to a tyrant/ or to the people/ yet might she not truly make him ill/ or faint hearted/ or fearful/ or altered of his mind/ or else make him malicious/ but only a good man/ endued with manliness and courage of the mind/ & at a word she might not bereave him the right order of the mind/ which truly profiteth more to man/ for the leading of the life/ than the craft of sailing/ for to pass the sees. For the mariner be he never so cunning/ can not by any means redress the fury of the water/ nor repulse the assault of the fierce wind/ no more than get a haven where he would/ when so ever he would return from the see. No/ nor this cometh not to him by craft that when he is taken with tempest/ constantly and unferfully to handle the necessity/ hereto it helph not/ that whilst he despaireth not/ for place for his craft/ taking in the sail/ driveth as he may with the tempest/ the coward now sitteth down with wring hands from all this ge●e/ & while the mast is drowned with force of wind/ he shaketh with trembling fere. but in a wise man/ a ordered mind with the body bringeth fair wether/ that is to say with continence/ and temper of food and labour/ wiping away the causes of sickness/ and if there be any outward cause of trouble/ in the which a man's mind is run/ as in the roky fla●tes/ with quick pulling up the sail yard (as Asclepiades saith) it passeth over. And if so be it en●rese and grow more than can be socourd or suffered by man/ the haven is not fer of/ and there resteth to the to swim out of the body/ as out of the ship boot/ when it will hold no more. Truly fools/ not so much for the desire of life/ as for the fear of death/ hanging on the body cleave fast with clasping hands/ no notherwise than Ulixes did hung on the wild fig tree/ when he feared the rushing of the horelpole Charybdis'/ whom Homer saith/ was so near taken in the see of Sycill/ that he could neither stop by reason of the wind that showed him/ nor yet get out/ so did that let him/ and as though he held the wolf by the ears/ as the proverb saith/ could neither hold the ire/ for weariness & discomodite of the chance/ nor let it go for fere of the dreadful pill. But if any mamnever so little consider/ the nature of our soul/ and doth reckon with himself/ the passage from the state of this life to be to a better/ or at the lest to no worse/ by death truly he hath already/ no little forderaunce for his journey/ that is to say/ the contempt of death. For who that/ what with valiant virtue/ which is the property and peculyarite of man/ and what with ordering assuredly the mind/ against for rain and strange things/ which come beside nature/ mightily to overthrow our proper things/ may live so pleasantly/ that he may say/ I may go/ I may go my way surely at the first time/ with the good leave of god/ when I will/ when I pray thee/ other grievous or cumbrous/ or troublous thing can happen unto him? Of troth/ what soever he is that saith this word/ I have prevented thee/ o fortune/ and all thy entries were they never so strait I have stopped/ this man not with berres/ nor nails/ nor buildings hath coraged and strengthened himself/ but rather with decrees of philosophy/ and rules of wisemen/ which also be open & so ready for every man/ that they need but only the taking. Nor we may not take away believe in those things/ that have been left to our remembrance of our elders/ nor despair in nothing of them/ as though they were not possible to be folowd/ but as it is meet to look upon them/ and to marvel moche of them/ as it were by grace wondringe of them/ so must we make ourselves/ by confirming us to their following lyklihodes of them/ that by beginnings set in small things/ as saying greater and greater/ we may profit to the highest. But we must diligently look/ that we put not the thoughts of these things out of our mind/ nor that we let to turn oft these things in our thought/ and (as they say) to think on them with all our heart. Nor this business endeth no great labour (for as a certain sweetness of the mind/ noyeth us and hath taught us with slothful and unexercised tenderness/ and haunting most prone things of least business/ by an naughty favour hath taught itself/ out of undelightsome things/ to turn itself to each pleasant thing/ so likewise if any man use to fain in his mind/ the images of sickness/ of labour/ of exile/ & to gather unto him the strengths of his reason/ to discus diligently each by himself. this man/ this/ s●all without fail see that those things/ for the most part/ are vain and dispi●able/ that seem heavy/ fearful/ and horrible/ and to say troth/ threaten more with their look/ than they do in the departing But many abhor that word of Menander/ that any man a live may not glory/ in saying/ this I will not suffer. for that they know not what it availeth for to avoid heaviness/ to think and to use to behold fortune/ with unagreeable and fairs eyes/ and not to le●e to tender thoughts/ and trifling delights/ and norisshmentes of easy life/ rising at every little hope/ and falling at every little thing. Although it may be thus answered to Menander. It can no wyse●e said/ why●e I live this I will not suffer/ let it be so/ but this I may say while I live/ this I will not do/ I will not lie/ I will use no crafty deceits for to compass men/ I will not beguile/ I will not deceitfully lie in an ayte. this sins it is in us/ it is a great help to them that lift themself up to the surety of mind/ in which manner like as botches be in the body/ so is a naughty conscience in the soul/ as that that leaveth repentance/ busily pricking and pulling the mind. For where all other heavinesses are wont to be taken away by reason/ only this repentance itself provoketh by shame/ as one that biteth and gnaweth himself. And truly/ as they that shake of a cold ague/ or burn of an hot ague/ are more sharply and fervently vexed than they that suffer the same things/ of outward cold or heat. so casual and chanceable things/ have more blunter heavinesses/ as outward and foreign things. And this thing/ no body is to blame for me but myself/ which is wont to be plainynly cried/ when an offence is done/ maketh the hurt tha● 〈◊〉 grievous of itself/ more grievous/ and driveth it in deꝑ. So neither gorgeousness of building/ nor weight of gold/ nor nobleness of kin/ nor greatness of empire/ nor eloquence & fair speaking/ brinketh so moche clearness of life/ and so pleasant quietness/ as bringeth a mind discovered from trouble of business/ living (as they say) with himself far from ill advise. which having the well of life (I mean ●yt & conditions/ from which commendable deeds do spring) clear and untroubled/ shall bring forth all his dedis/ merry & upright as it were with an heavenly grace/ by the remembrance whereof/ he is feed with a more certain/ than Pyndarus hope/ nourishment (as he saith) of old age. And as Carneades was wont to say/ the sweet fyrres though they be cut or pulled up by the roots/ they keep a sweet savour a long while/ truly in the mind of a wise man/ honest deeds do ever leave a certain fresh and pleasant remembrance. with the which remembrance that same inward gladness springeth by a continual river/ as who saith bearing fruit/ to the great shame of their error/ that so lamentably blame this life/ saying it is a congregation of ills/ and a certain resort of outlaws/ in to the which only the souls that be banished from above be put. I reckon that word of Diogenes worthy remembrance/ which he said/ when he saw a stranger in Lacedemona/ curiously pyking himself again a holiday. what qd he/ is not every day holiday with a good man? yes and if we be wise most gladsome holiday. For this world is a certain most holy temple/ & most meet for god/ in to this temple man is admitted when he is borne/ not to be hold karuyn images wanting senses/ but the son/ the moon/ & the stars/ from which cometh moving/ & the first principles of life/ which providence hath given unto us to behold/ that they should be sensible images and followings of intelligible things/ as Plato saith. be sides these/ the floods that bring forth always new waters/ and the earth producing food/ both unto trees & unto all kind of beasts. with this goodliness & prospect beginning truly our life/ it must be full of surety and of overspread gladsonnesse/ nor 〈◊〉 are not to be looked for of us/ Saturn●● festes/ or Bacchus' feasts/ or Minerva's feasts/ as many do that receive these and such other feasts with great awaytinge/ gladsomeness and sport/ in which they may more liberally/ glad themself with bought laughter giving wages unto minstrels and tumblers for their mind sake. And what is more uncomely/ than that in such plays we sit with such pertynax scylence doyne nothing else (as they say) (for there is no man that lamenteth or weepeth/ when he saith Pythia begin/ no more than he is hungry after the feast) and those goodlynesses whereof god himself is auctor unto us/ and in manner player/ with lamenting and sourness of mind/ leading a dolorous life/ we defile and make sorrowful. And yet most unsilly is this/ when we delight in organs played and sounded/ and in little birds songs/ and behold gladly the beestis playing and dancing/ and again are offended with their froward noise and their cruel looks/ yet nevertheless seeing our own lives sad and heavy/ frowning/ & overthrown with most troublous affections and tangled busynesse●●nd cures/ and driven with vntempe●●●esse/ that not only we can not get us some liberty and space to take our breath/ but neither hear also other exhorting us to it. To whose warnings with clear and open cares/ if we would give heed/ we should use things present as they come without any blame/ and should rest with the pleasant remembrance of things past/ and at the last we should draw toward things to come/ unferefully and assuredly/ with sure and glad some shining hope.  
th'end.   

¶ Imprinted at London in Fleetstreet by Richard Pynson/ printer to the kings moo●● noble grace.  
¶ Cum privilegio.