M9.) THE SECOND BOOK. 95 
that at the end of thé thread or web of every man’s life 
there was a little medal containing the person’s name, 
and that Time waited upon the shears, and as soon as 
the thread was cut, caught the medals, and carried them 
to the river of Lethe; and about the bank there were 
many birds flying up and down, that would get the 
medals and carry them in their beak a little while, and 
then let them fall into the river. Only there were, a few 
swans, which if they got a name would carry it to a 
temple where it was consecrate. And although many 
men, more mortal in their affections than in their bodies, 
do esteem desire of name and memory but as a vanity 
and ventosity, 
Animi nil magnz laudis egentes ; 
which opinion cometh from that root, Von prius laudes 
contempsimus, quam laudanda facere desivimus: yet that 
will not alter Salomon’s judgement, Memoria justi cum 
laudibus, at impiorum nomen putrescet : the one flourisheth, 
the other either consumeth to present oblivion, or turneth 
to an ill odour. And therefore in that style or addition, 
which is and hath been long well received and brought 
in use, felicis memoria, pie memoria, bone memoria, we 
do *acknowledge that which Cicero saith, borrowing it 
from Demosthenes, that bona fama propria possessio de- 
JSunctorum ; which possession I cannot but note that in 
our times it lieth much waste, and that therein there is a 
deficience. 
ro. For narrations and relations of particular actions, 
there were also to be wished a greater diligence therein ; 
for there is no great action but hath some good pen 
which attends it. And because it is an ability not com- 
mon to write a good history, as may well appear by the 
small number of them; yet if particularity of actions 
