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CHAPTER XX
WE TASTE NOTHING PURELY
THE weaknes of our condition causeth that things in
their naturall simplicitie and puritie cannot fall into
our use. The elements we enjoy are altered: metals
likewise, yea gold, must be empaired with some other
stuffe to make it fit for our service. Nor vertue so
simple, which Ariston, Pyrrho, and Stoikes made the
end of their life, hath been able to doe no good without
composition : nor the Circnaike sensualitie or Aristippian
voluptuousnes. ' Of the pleasures and goods we
have, there is none exempted from some mixture of
evill and incommoditie.'
medio de/onte lepoi urn
Surgit amari ahquid, quod in ipstsfloribus angat 1
From middle spring of sweetes some bitter springs,
Which in the very flower smartly stings.
Our exceeding voluptuousnesse hath some aire of
groning and wailing. Would you not say it dieth of
anguish ? Yea, when we forge its image in hir excellence,
we deck it with epithets of sickish and dolorous
qualities: languor, effeminacy, weaknesse, fainting and
morbidezza, a great testimony of their consanguinity
and consubstantiality. Excessive joy hath more severity
then jolity : extreme and full content more settlednes
then cheerfulnesse. Ipsa foelicitas, se nisi temper at,
premit: 2 ' Felicitie it selfe, unlesse it temper it selfe,
distempers us.' Ease consumeth us. It is that which
an old Greek verse saith of such a sense: ' The Gods
sell us all the goods they give us:' that is to say, they
give us not one pure and perfect, and which we buy
¹ LUCR. 1. iv. 12, 24. ² SENT. Quare, &c.
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