CHAP. II. I EELIGION WOT TO HE KEOLECTED. 337 



man was not made to keep his mind always on the ground ; 

 iiud, like the serpent, eating the dust, — 



" Atque affigit humo divinee particulani aurne."' 

 And again — 



" Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tiieri 

 Jussit ; et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.""" 



Some, however, may flatter themselves, that, by what 

 sinister means soever their fortune be procured, they are 

 determined to use it well when obtained ; when it was said 

 oi Augustus Ctesar and Septimus Severus, that " they ought 

 never to have been born, or never to have died :" so much 

 evil they committed in aspiring, and so much good they did 

 when seated. But let such men know that this recompensing 

 of evil with good, though it may be approved after the 

 action, yet is justly condemned in the design. Lastly, it may 

 not be amiss, in this eager pursuit of fortune, for men to cool 

 themselves a little with the saying of Charles the Fifth to 

 his son ; viz. " Fortime is like the ladies, who generally scorn 

 and discard their over-earnest admirers." But this last 

 remedy belongs to such as have their taste vitiated by a 

 disease of the mind. Let mankind rather rest upon the 

 corner-stone of divinity and philosophy, both which nearly 

 agree in the thing that ought first to be sought. For 

 Divinity says, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all 

 other things shall be added unto you :"" so philosophy directs 

 us first to seek the goods of the mind, and the rest will 

 either be supplied, or are not much wanted. For although 

 this foundation, laid by human hands, is sometimes placed 

 upon the sand, as in the case of Brutus, who, at his death, 

 ciied out, " O virtue, I have reverenced thee as a being, but 

 alas, thou art aa empty name !"o yet the same foundation is 

 ever, by the Divine hand, fixed upon a rock. And here we 

 conclude the doctrine of rising in life, and the general doc- 

 trine of business, together. 



» Hor. Sat. ii. 79. «" Oyiu. Metam. I 85. " Matt. vi. 33. 



• ^i2 TXijfiov aptri), Xoyoi,* dp' ?/«tO'' tyo* de et 

 *Uf ipyov i)<TK09v' (TV S* dp' icovXtvtg roxy. — Dio. Cass, xlvii. 41>. 



