26 PREFACE. 



Utriusque Fortunae. " ''Ad honestum nihil idonei," says 

 Ratio, " sylvas colunt, non vitam solitariam acturi, cui non 

 miniis quam politicae se ineptos sciunt, sed feris, ac canibus, et 

 volucribus convicturi, quod non facerent, nisi illis similitudine 

 aliqua juncti essent : qui, si ex hoc voluptatem quandam, seu 

 solam temporis fugam quserunt, utrinque stulti, voti compotes 

 forsan evaserint. Sin, nescio quam, seu ingenii, seu magnifi- 

 centise gloriam aucupantur, errant," &c. ^ 



The whole dialogue is an admirable rebuke of the licentious 

 sporting in the days of this extraordinary genius. ^ ** Hie 

 amor, haec felicitas, et hoc totum, quod Creatori Deo, quod 

 altrici patriae, quod parentibus, quod amicis redditis ? Quis 

 vos ferat, ad aliud natos, in his vivere, si modo vivitis, hoc 

 agentes?" says " Reason:" and I confess that I am unable 

 and unwilling to furnish ^' Joy" with a reply of defence ; 

 approving, as I do, of the joint worship of Minerva and Diana, 

 Piin. Epist. L. recommended by Tacitus to his correspondent Pliny, and of 



IX. 10. 



making the health of the body conducive to that of the mind : 



1. According to the decisions of judicial astrology in casting nativities, Julius 

 J. Firiiiici As- Firmicus remarks that the following personages, " equorum nutritores, accipitrum, 

 tronomic. . v. f^ji^Q^mj,^ cseterarumque avium, quas ad aucupia pertinent, similiter et Molossorum, 



Vertagrorum, et qui sunt ad venationes accomodati," being born when the planet 

 Venus is in Aquarius, are incapable of application to any more laudable pursuit than 

 hunting and hawking. 



2. The chasseurs of Agrippa's days, laical and clerical, were equally reprehensible. 

 From the Thebans, this literary Tiraonist tells us, the worst of men, Venation passed 

 to the Trojans, not much better, tind thence to Greece and Rome, brutalizing the in- 



De Incert. et habitants of the earth in its progress — " Tandem haec exercitia in se revera servilia et 



Vanit. &c. c. mechanica eo usque evecta sunt, ut positis quibusque liberalibus studiis, hodie prima 



nobilitaiis elementa atque progressus sint, illis dacibus ad summuin gradum perveni- 



atur : hodieque ipsa regum et principum vita, ipsa etiam (proh dolor !) abbatum, 



episcoporum, cffitcrorunique ccclesia; pra'fectorum religio, tola inquam venatio est," &.c. 



