372 HISTORY OF 



temperateness of diet, abstinence from Venus, moderation 

 in labour, indifferent rest and repose : and the contrary to 

 these do alter and overwhelm the spirits ; as namely, vehe 

 ment affections, profuse feastings, immoderate Venus, diffi 

 cult labours, earnest studies, and prosecution of business. 

 Yet men are wont, when they are merriest and best dis 

 posed, then to apply themselves to feastings, Venus, la 

 bours, endeavours, businesses, whereas if they have a regard 

 to long life (which may seem strange), they should rather 

 practice the contrary. For we ought to cherish and pre 

 serve good spirits; and for the evil disposed spirits to dis 

 charge and alter them. 



95. Ficinus saith not unwisely, that old men, for the 

 comforting of their spirits, ought often to remember and 

 ruminate upon the acts of their childhood and youth ; cer 

 tainly such a remembrance is a kind of peculiar recreation 

 to every old man : and therefore it is a delight to men to 

 enjoy the society of them which have been brought up 

 together with them, and to visit the places of their educa 

 tion. Vespasian did attribute so much to this matter, that 

 when he was Emperor, he would by no means be persuaded 

 to leave his father s house, though but mean, lest he should 

 lose the wonted object of his eyes, and the memory of his 

 childhood. And besides, he would drink in a wooden cup 

 tipped with silver, which was his grandmother s, upon fes 

 tival days. 



96. One thing above all is grateful to the spirits, that 

 there be a continual progress to the more benign ; there 

 fore we should lead such a youth and manhood, that our 

 old age should find new solaces, whereof the chief is mode 

 rate ease : and therefore old men in honourable places lay 

 violent hands upon themselves, who retire not to their ease; 

 whereof may be found an eminent example in Cassiodorus, 

 who was of that reputation amongst the gothish kings of 

 Italy, that he was as the soul of their affairs ; afterwards, 

 being near eighty years of age, he betook himself to a mo 

 nastery, where he ended not his days before he was a 

 hundred years old. But this thing doth require two cau 

 tions : one, that they drive not off till their bodies be 

 utterly worn out and diseased ; for in such bodies all mu 

 tation, though to the more benign, hasteneth death ; the 

 other, that they surrender not themselves to a sluggish 

 ease, but that they embrace something which may enter 

 tain their thoughts and mind with contentation ; in which 

 kind, the chief delights are reading and contemplation, and 

 then the desires of building and planting. 



