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THE SECOND BOOKE 419
would have taken as a plancke to passe over to search,
to agitation, and to unquietnes). And as 1 have
sought for nothing, so I have taken nothing.
Non agxmur tumidis ventts Aquilone secundo,
Non tamen adversis cetatem ducimus austris;
Viribus, ingenio, specie, viitutc, loco, re,
Extremi primorum, exti emit usque priores. 1
With full sailes, prosp'rous winde, we do not drive,
Nor yet with winde full in our teeth doe live.
In strength, in wit, in vertue, shape, goods, place,
Last of the first, before the last we pace.
I have had no need but of sufficiencie to content my
selfe. which being well taken is ever a regiment for
the mind, equally difficult in all sorts of conditions;
and which by use we see more easily found in want
than in plenty; peradventure, because that according
to the course of our other passions, the greed inesse of
riches is more sharpened by their uses than by their
need: and the vertue of moderation more rare than
that of patience. And 1 have had no need but to
enjoy those goods quietly, which God of his bounty
had bestowed upon me. I have tasted no kinde of
tedious trouble. I have seldome mannaged other than
mine owne businesse : or if I have, it hath beene upon
condition I might do it at my leisure, and according
to my will, committed unto me, by such as trusted me
and knew me well, and would not importune me. For
the skilfull rider will reape some service of a restie
and wind-broken jade. My very childe-hood hath
beene directed by a soft, milde, gentle and free fashion,
and ever exempted from rigorous subjection. Al which
hath endowed me with a delicate kinde of complexion,
and made me incapable of any care: So that I love
men should conceale my losses from me and the disorders
which concerne me. In the chapter of my
charges and expences, I have set downe what my
negligence or carelesnesse costs me, both to feed and
entertaine my selfe.
¹ HOR. 1. ii. Epist. ii. 101,