Sir William {Temple 129 



"But, above all, the learned read, and ask 

 By what means you may gently pass your age, 

 What lessens care, what makes thee thine own friend, 

 What truly calms the mind ; honor, or wealth, 

 Or else a 'private path of stealing life." 



These are questions that a man ought at least 

 to ask himself, whether he asks others or no, 

 and to choose his course of life rather by his 

 own humor and temper than by common acci- 

 dents or advice of friends ; at least, if the Span- 

 ish proverb be true, that a fool knows more in 

 his own house than a wise man in another's. 



The measure of choosing well is, whether a 

 man likes what he has chosen ; which, I thank 

 God, has befallen me ; and though, among the 

 follies of my life, building and planting have 

 not been the least, and have cost me more than 

 I have the confidence to own, yet they have 

 been fully recompensed by the sweetness and 

 satisfaction of this retreat, where, since my 

 resolution taken of never entering again into 

 any public employments, I have passed five 

 years without ever going once to town, though 

 I am almost in sight of it, and have a house 

 there always ready to receive me. Nor has this 

 been any sort of affectation, as some have 

 thought it, but a mere want of desire or humor 

 to make so small a remove ; for when I am in 

 this corner, I can truly say, with Horace : 



