THE SECOND BOOK 371 



But men if they be in their own power and do bear and 

 sustain themselves, and be not carried away with a whirl- 

 wind or tempest of ambition, ought in the pursuit of their 

 own fortune to set before their eyes not only that general 

 map of the world, that all things are vanity and vexation of 

 spirit, but many other more particular cards and directions: 

 chiefly that, that Being without well-being is a curse and 

 the greater being the greater curse, and that all virtue is 

 most rewarded and all wickedness most punished in itself: 

 according as the poet saith excellently : 



Quae vobis, quae digna^ viri, pro laudibus istis 

 Praemia posse rear sohi ? pulcherrima primum 

 Dii moresque dabunt vestri: 



and so of the contrary. And secondly they ought to look 

 up to the eternal providence and divine judgment, which 

 often subverteth the wisdom of evil plots and imaginations, 

 according to that Scripture, * He hath conceived mischief, 

 and shall bring forth a vain thing.' And although men 

 should refrain themselves from injury and evil arts, yet 

 this incessant and Sabbathless pursuit of a man's fortune 

 leaveth not tribute which we owe to God of our time ; who 

 (we see) demandeth a tenth of our substance, and a seventh, 

 which is more strict, of our time: and it is to small purpose 

 to have an erected face towards heaven, and a perpetual 

 grovelling spirit upon earth, eating dust as doth the serpent ; 

 Atque affigit humo divinae particulam aurae. And if any man 

 flatter himself that he will employ his fortune well though 

 he should obtain it ill, as was said concerning Augustus 

 Caesar, and after of Septimius Severus, ' that either they 

 should never have been born or else they should never have 

 died/ they did so much mischief in the pursuit and ascent of 

 their greatness, and so much good when they were estab- 

 lished ; yet these compensations and satisfactions are good 

 to be used, but never good to be purposed. And lastly, 

 it is not amiss for men in their race toward their fortune to 

 cool themselves a little with that conceit which is elegantly 

 expressed by the Emperor Charles the Fifth in his instruc- 

 tions to the king his son, * that fortune hath somewhat of 



