II. Q.] THE SECOND BOOK. 95 



that at the end of the 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 magnae laudis egentes ; 



which opinion cometh from that root, Non prius laudes 

 contempsi?nus, quarn laudanda facer e 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 memories, pice memories, bonce memories, we 

 do acknowledge that which Cicero saith, borrowing it 

 from Demosthenes, that bona fama propria posscssio de- 

 functorum ; which possession I cannot but note that in 

 our times it lieth much waste, and that therein there is a 

 deficience. 



10. 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 



