1 62 OF THE COLOURS OF GOOD AND EVIL 



the acts of Agesilaus and Epaminondas, that ' they were like 

 Homer's verses, they ran so easily and so well'; and there- 

 fore it is the word we give unto poesy, terming it a happy 

 vein, because facility seemeth ever to come from happiness. 

 Fourthly, this same praeter spem, vel praeter expectation, 

 doth increase the price and pleasure of many things ; and 

 this cannot be incident to those things that proceed from 

 our own care and compass. 



X 



Gradus prhationis major videtur quam gradus diminutionis ; 

 et rursus gradus inceptionis major videtur quam gradus 

 incrementi. 



It is a position in the mathematics, that there is no pro- 

 portion between somewhat and nothing, therefore the degree 

 of nullity and quiddity or act, seemeth larger than the 

 degrees of increase and decrease ; as to a monoculos it is 

 more to lose one eye, than to a man that hath two eyes. 

 So if one have lost divers children, it is more grief to him 

 to lose the last than all the rest ; because he is spes gregis. 

 And therefore Sibylla, when she brought her three books, 

 and had burned two, did double the whole price of both 

 the other, because the burning of that had been gradus 

 privationis, and not diminutionis. 



This colour is reprehended first in those things, the use 

 and service whereof resteth in sufficiency, competency, or 

 determinate quantity : as if a man be to pay one hundred 

 pounds upon a penalty, it is more to him to want twelve 

 pence, than after that twelve pence supposed to be wanting, 

 to want ten shillings more ; so the decay of a man's estate 

 seems to be most touched in the degree when he first grows 

 behind, more than afterwards when he proves nothing 

 worth. And hereof the common forms are, Sera in fundo 

 parsimonia, and, ' as good never a whit, as never the 

 better,' etc. It is reprehended also in respect of that 

 notion, Corruptio unius, generatio alterius : so that gradus 

 privationis is many times less matter, because it gives the 

 cause and motive to some new course. As when Demos- 



