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THE SECOND BOOKE 3
deliberation is the beginning of all virtue, and constancie
the end and perfection. If by reason or discourse
we should take a certaine way, we should then
take the fairest: but no man hath thought on it.
Quod petiit, spernit, repetit quod nuper omisit
AEstuat, et vita disconvenit ordme toto. 1
He scornes that which he sought, seek's that he scorn'd of late,
He fiowes, ebbes, disagrees in his hfes whole estate.
Our ordinary manner is to follow the inclination of
our appetite this way and that way, on the left and on
the right hand; upward and downeward, according as
the winde of occasions doth transport us: we never
thinke on what we would have, but at the instant we
would have it: and change as that beast that takes the
colour of the place wherein it is laid. What we even
now purposed we alter by and by, and presently returne
to our former biase: all is but changing, motire, and
inconstancy:
Ducimur ut nervis alienis mobile lignum.²
So are we drawne, as wood is shoved,
By others sinnewes each way moved.
We goe not, but we are carried: as things that fiote,
now gliding gently, now hulling violently, according as
the water is, either stormy or calme.
nonne videmus
Quid sibi quisquc veht nescire et qucerere semper,
Commutai e locum quasi onus deponere possit ? ²
See we not, every man in his thoughts height
Knowes not what he would have, yet seekes he streight
To change place, as he could lay downe his weight ?
Every day new toyes, each hour new fantasies, and
our humours move and fleet with the fleetings and
movings of time.
1 HOR. 1. i, Epist. i. 98.
² HOR. 1. ii. Sat vii, 82. ³ LUCRET. 1, iii. 1070.