326 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



by nature should be received into this treatise, but those 

 also which are otherwise imposed upon the mind by the 

 sex, age, country, state of health, make of body, etc. And 

 again, those which proceed from fortune, as in princes, 

 nobles, common people, the rich, the poor, magistrates, the 

 ignorant, the happy, the miserable, etc. Thus we see Plau- 

 tus makes it a kind of miracle to find an old man beneficent. 



&quot;Benignitas quidem hujus oppido ut adolescentuli est.&quot; 



And St. Paul, commanding a severity of discipline toward 

 the Cretans, accuses the temper of that nation from the 

 poet: &quot;The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and slow 

 bellies.&quot; 8 Sallust notes it of the temper of kings, that it is 

 frequent with them to desire contradictories &quot;Plerumque 

 regiae voluntates, ut vehementes sunt; sic mobiles, saepeque 

 ipsae sibi- adversae.&quot; 9 Tacitus observes, that &quot;honors and 

 dignities commonly change the temper of mankind for the 

 worse.&quot; &quot;Solus Vespasianus mutatus in melius.&quot; 10 Pindar 

 remarks that &quot;a sudden flush of good fortune generally 

 enervates and slackens the mind.&quot; 



&quot;Sunt qui raagnara felicltatem concoquere non possimt. &quot; u 



The Psalmist intimates, that it is easier to hold a mean in 

 the height, than in the increase of fortune &quot;If riches fly to 

 thee, set not thy heart upon them.&quot; 12 It is true, Aristotle, 

 in his Ehetorics, cursorily mentions some such observations; 

 and so do others up and down in their writings: but they 

 were never yet incorporated into moral philosophy, whereto 

 they principally belong, as much as treatises of the differ 

 ence of the soil and glebe belong to agriculture, or dis 

 courses of the different complexions or habits of the body 

 to medicine. The thing must, therefore, be now procured, 

 unless we would imitate the rashness of empirics, who em 

 ploy the same remedies in all diseases and constitutions. 



7 Miles Gloriosus, act 3. sc. i. v. 39. 8 Epist. Tit. i. 12. 



9 Jugurtha, i, 50. 10 Hist. i. 53, toward the end. 



11 Or, Karajre^ai fttyav 6A/3oi&amp;gt; OVK eSvi-aaflij. Olymp. i. 65. 12 Psalm Ixi. 1 1. 



