THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. 7 



they shall never want such kind of instruments, do 

 utterly forsake them, turning them over to the friends 

 and allies of the wronged, to their accusations and 

 revenge, and to the general hatred of the people ; 

 so that with great applause and prosperous wishes 

 and acclamations towards the Prince, they are 

 brought rather too late than undeservedly to a mi 

 serable end. 



NARCISSUS, OR SELF LOVE. 



They say that Narcissus was exceeding fair and 

 beautiful, but wonderful proud and disdainful; 

 wherefore despising all others in respect of himself, 

 he leads a solitary life in the woods and chases with 

 a few followers, to whom he alone was all in all ; 

 amongst the rest there follows him the nymph 

 Echo. During his course of life, it fatally so 

 chanced that he came to a clear fountain, upon the 

 bank whereof he lay down to repose himself in the 

 heat of the day ; and having espied the shadow of 

 his own face in the water, was so besotted and 

 ravished with the contemplation and admiration 

 thereof, that he by no means possibly could be drawn 

 from beholding his image in this glass ; insomuch, 

 that by continual gazing thereupon, he pined away 

 to nothing, and was at last turned into a flower of 

 his own name, which appears in the beginning of the 

 spring, and is sacred to the infernal powers, Pluto, 

 Proserpina, and the Furies. 



This fable seems to shew the dispositions and 

 fortunes of those, who in respect either of their 



