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THE SECOND BOOKE 333
to suffer himselfe to be carried away by appearances,
and to this opinion seemeth this other of ancient
Pithagoras to incline.
Nil admirari, prope res est una, Numici,
Solaque, quae, possit facere et servaie beatumj-
Sir, nothing to admire, is th' only thing,
That may keepe happy, and to bappy bring,
which is the end and scope of the Pyrrhonian Sect.
Aristotle ascribeth unto magnanimitie, to admire and
wonder at nothing. And Archesilaus said that sufference
and an upright and inflexible state of judgement
were true felicities; whereas consents and applications
were vices and evils. True it is, that where he establish
eth it for a certaine Axiome, he started from
Pyrrhonisme. When the Pyrrhonians say that ataraxy
is" the chiefe felicitie, which is the immobilitie of judgement,
their meaning is not to speake it affirmatively,
but the very wavering of their mind, which makes
them to shun downefalls, and to shrowd themselves
under the shelter of calmenesse, presents this phantasie
unto them, and makes them refuse another. Oh
how much doe I desire that whilest I live, either some
other learned men, or Iustus Lipsius, the most sufficient
and learned man now living; of a most polished and
judicious wit, true Cosingermane to my Turnebus, had
both will, health, and leisure enough, sincerely and
exactly, according to their divisions and formes, to
collect into one volume or register, as much as by us
might be seene, the opinions of ancient philosophy,
concerning the subject of our being and customes,'
their controversies the credit, and partaking of factions
and sides, the application of the authors and sectators
lives, to their precepts, in memorable and exemplarie
accidents. 0 what a worthy and profitable labour
would it be! Besides, if it be from our selves that
we draw the regiment of our customes, into what a
bottomles confusion doe we cast our selves ? For what
our reason perswades us to be most likely for it, is
1 HOR. 1, i. Epist. vi, 1.