IT seemes to mee strange , and a thing much to bee marueiled , that the laborer to repose himself hasteneth as it were the course of the Sun : that the Mariner rows with al force t' attain the port & with a ioyfull cry salutes the descried land : that the traueller is neuer quiet nor content til hee beat the end of his voyage : and that we in the meane while tyed in this world to a perpetuall taske , tossed with continuall tempest , tyred with a rough and combersom way , cannot yet see the end of our labor but with griefe , nor behold our port but with tears , nor approche our home and quiet abode but with horrour and trembling . This life is but a Penelopes webbe , wherein we are alwaies doing & vndoing : a sea open to all winds , which somtime within , sometime without neuer ceas to torment vs : a wearie iourny through extream heats , & colds , ouer high mountains , steep rocks , & theeuish deserts . And so wee tearme it , in weauing at this web , in rowing at this oar , in passing this miserable way : yet lo when death comes to end our work , when shee stretcheth out her armes to pull vs into the port , when after so many dangerous passages , and loathsome lodgings she would conduct vs to our true home and resting place : in stead of reioycing at the end of our labor , of taking confort at the sight of our land , of singing at the approach of our happie mansion , we would fain ( who would beleeue it ? ) retake our worke in hand , we would againe hoise saile to the winde , and willingly vndertake our iourney anew . No more , then , remember we our paines , our shipwracks and dangers are forgotten : we feare no more the trauelles nor the theeues . Contrariwise , wee apprehende death as an extreame paine , wee doubt it as a rocke , wee flie it as a thiefe . Wee do as little children , who al the day complaine , and when the medicin is brought them , are no longer sicke : as they , who ( all the weeke long ) runne vp & downe the streets with paine of the teeth , and seeing the Barber comming to pull them out , feel no more pain : as those tender and delicate bodies , who in a pricking pleurisie complaine , cry out , and cannot stay for a Surgion , and when they see him whetting his Launcet to cut the throat of the disease , pul in their arms & hide them in the bed , as if hee were come to kill them . Wee feare more the cure then the disease , the Surgion than the pain , the stroke them the impostume . Wee haue more sense of the medicines bitternesse soone gone , then of a bitter languishing long continued : more feeling of death the end of our miseries , then the endlesse miserie of our life . And whence proceedeth this folly and simplicitie ? we neither knowe life , nor death . We fear that we ought to hope for , and wish for that wee ought to feare . Wee call life a continuall death : and death the issue of a liuing death , and the entrance of a neuer dying life . Now what good , I pray you , is ther in life , that wee should so much pursue it ? or what euill is there in death , that wee should so much eschue it ? Nay what euill is there not in life ? and what good is there not in death ? Consider al the periods of this life . We enter it in teares , wee passe it in sweate , wee ende it in sorrowe . Great and little , rich and poore , not one in the whole world that can plead immunitie from this condition . Man , in this point worse then all other creatures , is borne vnable to support himselfe ; neyther receiuing in his first yeares any pleasure , nor giuing to others but annoy and displeasure , and before the age of discretion passing infinit dangers : only herein le●●● vnhappie then in other ages , that hee hath no sense nor apprehension of his vnhappinesse . Now , is there anie so weake minded , that if it were graunted him to liue alwayes a childe , would make account of such a life ? So then it is euident , that not simply to liue is a good ; but wel and happilie to liue . But proceed . Growes hee ? with him grow his trauailes . Scarcely is hee come out of his nurses hands , scarcely knowes what it is to play , but he falleth into the subiection of some schoolemaster . I speake but of those which are best & most precisely broght vp : Studies he ? it is euer with repining . Playes hee ? neuer but with feare . This whole age , while hee is vnder the charge of another , is vnto him but as a prison : he only thinks , and only aspires to that time when freed from the mastership of another , he may become master of himself ; pushing onward ( as much as in him lyes ) his age with his shoulder , that soone he may enioy his hoped liberty Inshort , he desires nothing more than the end of this base age , and the beginning of his youth . And what else I pray you is the beginning of youth , but the death of infancie ? the beginning of manhood , but the death of youth ? the beginning of to morrow , but the death of to day ? In this sort then desires he his death , & iudgeth his life miserable : and so cannot be reputed in any happinesse or contentment . Behold him now , according to his wish , at liberty : in that age , wherein Hercules had the choise , to take the way of vertue or of vice , reason or passion for his guide , and of these two must take one . His passion entertaines him with'a thousand delights , prepares for him a thousand baits , presentes him with a thousand worldly pleasures to surprize him : and fewe there are that are not beguiled . But at the reckonings ende , what pleasures are they ? pleasures full of vice , which holde him still in a restlesse feauer : pleasures subiect to repentance , like sweete meats of hard digestion : pleasures bought with pain and peril , spent and past in a moment , and followed with a long & lothsom remorse of conscience . And this is the very nature ( if they be wel examined ) of al the pleasures of this world . Ther is in none so much sweetnes , but ther is more bitternes : none so pleasant to the mouth , but leavs an vnsauoury after-taste and loathsome disdain : none ( which is worse ) so moderated but hath his corrosiue , & caries his punishment in it self . I will not here speak of the displeasures confessed by al , as quarelles , debates , woundes , murthers , banishments , sicknesse , peril , wherinto sometimes the incontinency , sometimes the insolency of this ill guided age conducts him . But if those that seeme pleasures , be nothing els but displeasurs : if the sweetnes therof be as an infusion of wormwood ; it is plain enough what the displeasure is they feele , and how great the bitternes that they taste . Behold in sum the life of a young man , who rid of the gouernment of his parents , abandons himselfe to all liberty or rather bondage of his passion : which , right like an vncleane spirit possessing him , casts him now into the water , now into the fire : sometimes carries him cleane ouer a rocke , and sometime flings him headlong to the bottome . Now , if he take and follow reason for his guide , beholde on the other part wonderfull difficulties : he must resolue to fight in euery parte of the field , at euery step to be in conflict , and at handstrokes ; as hauing his enemy in front , in flanke , and on the rerewarde , neuer leauing to assaile him . And what enimie ? al that can delight him , all that hee sees neer , or far off ; brieflie the greatest enemy of the world , the world it selfe : But which is worse , a thousand treacherous and daungerous intelligences among his own forces , & his passion within himselfe desperate : which , in that age grown to the highest , awaits but time , houre , & occasion to surprize him & cast him into all viciousnes . God onely and none other can make him choose this way : God only can hold him in it to the end : God only can make him victorious in all his combates . And well wee see how fewe they are that enter into it , and of those few how many that retire againe . Followe the one way or followe the other , he must either subiect himself to a tyrannicall passion , or vndertake a weary & continual combate , willingly cast himself to destruction , or fetter himself as it were in stocks , easily sink with the course of the water , or painfully swimme against the streame . Loe here the yong m̄ , who in his youth hath drunk his full draught of the worlds vain & deceiueable pleasures , ouertaken by them with such a dull heauinesse , and astonishment , as drunkeards the morrow after a feaste : either so out of taste , that hee will no more ; or so glutted , that he can no more : not able without griefe to speak , or think of them . Loe him that stoutely hath made resistance : hee feeles himselfe so wearie , and with this continuall conflicte so brused and broken , that either hee is vpon the point to yeeld himself , or content to die , and so acquit himselfe . And this is all the good , all the contentment of this florishing age , by children so earnestly desired , and by olde folkes so heartilie lamented . Nowe commeth that which is called perfect age ; in the which men haue no other thoughts but to purchase themselues wisdome and rest . Perfect indeed ▪ but herin onely perfect , that all imperfections of humane nature , hidden before vnder the simplicity of childhood or the lightnesse of youth , appeare at this age in their perfection , We speake of none in this place but such as are esteemed the wisest , & most happy in the conceit of the world . Wee played as you haue seene in feare : our shorte pleasures were attended on with long repentance . behold , now present themselues to vs auarice , and ambition ; promising , if wee will adore them , perfect contentment of the goods and honours of this world . And surely ther are none but the true Children of the Lord , who by the faire illusions of the one or the other cast not them selues headlong from the top of the pinnacle . But in the end , what is all this contentment ? The couetous man makes a thousand voiages by sea and by land : runnes a thousand fortunes : escapes a thousand shipwracks , in perpetuall feare and trauel : and many times hee either loseth his time , or gayneth nothing but sicknesses , gouts , & oppilations for the time to come In the purchase of this goodly repose , hee bestoweth his true rest ; and , to gaine wealth , loseth his life . Suppose hee hath gained in good quantitie : that hee hath spoyled the whole East of pearles , and drawen drie all the mines of the West : will hee therefore bee settled in quiet ? can hee say that he is content ? All charges and iourneyes past , by his passed paines hee heapeth vp but future disquietnesse both of minde and body ; from one trauell falling into nother , neuer ending , but changing his miseries . Hee desired to haue them , and now feares to lose them : he got them with burning ardour , & possesseth in trembling cold : hee aduentured among theeues to seek them ; & hauing found them , theeues & robbers on al sides , run mainely on him : he la●oured to digge them out of the earth , and now is inforced to religge , and rehide them ▪ Finally , comming from al his voiages , he comes into a prison : and for an end of his bodily trauels is taken with endlesse trauels of the mind . And what , at length , hath this poore soule attained , after so many miseries ? This Diuell of couerise , by his illusions , & enchantments , bears him in hand that hee hath some rare and singular thing ▪ and so it fareth with him , as with those silly creatures whom , the Diuel seduceth vnder colour of relieuing their pouerty , who finde their hands full of leaues , supposing to finde them full of crownes . He possesseth or rather is possessed by a thing , wherein is neither force nor vertue ; more vnprofitable , and more base , then the least hearb of the earth : Yet hath he heaped together this vile excrement , and so brurish is grown , as therewith to crowne his head , which naturally hee shoulde tread vnder his feet . But howsoeuer it be , is hee therwith content ? Nay ( cōirariwise ) lesse now , then euer . We commend most , those drinkes that breede an alteration , and soonest extinguish thirst : and those meats , which in least quantitie do longest resist hunger . Now hereof the more a man drinkes , the more he is a thirst ; the more hee eates , the more an hungred : It is a dropsie ( and as they tearme it ) the dogs hunger : sooner may hee burst then be satisfied . And ( which is worse ) so strange in some is this thirst , that it maketh them dig the pittes , and painefully draw the water , and after will not suffer them to drinke . In the middest of a riuer they are drie with thirst : and on a heap of corne cry out of famine : they haue goods and dare not vse them : they haue ioyes it seemes , and doe not enioy them : they neither haue for themselues nor for another : but of all they haue , they haue nothing : and yet haue want of al they haue not . Let vs then returne to that that the attaining of all these deceiueable goods is nothing else but wearinesse of body ; & the possession for the most part , but wearines of the mind : which certainely is so much the greater , as is more sensible , more subtile , and more tender the soule then the body ▪ But the heap of al misery is , when they come to lose them ; when either shipwrack , or sacking or inuasion , or fire , or such like calamities , to which these fraile thinges are subiect , doth take and carie them from them . Then fall they to crie , to weep , & to torment them selues , as little children that haue lost their plai-game ; which notwithstanding is nothing worth . One cannot perswade them , that mortal men haue any other good in this world , but that which is mortall . They are in their owne conceits not onely spoyled , but altogether slayed . And , forasmuch as in these vaine things they haue fixt al their hopes ; hauing lost them , they fall into despaire , out of the which commonly they cannot bee withdrawen . And ( which is more ) al , that they haue not gained according to the accountes they made , they esteem lost : all that , which turnes them not to greate and extraordinarie profite , they account as damage : whereby wee see some fall into such despaire , as they cast away themselues . In short , the recompence that couetise yeeldes those that haue serued it all their life , is oftentimes like that of the Diuell : whereof the end is , that after a small time hauing gratified his Disciples , eyther gee giues them ouer to a hangman , or himselfe breaks their necks . I wil not here discourse of the wickednesse and mischiefes whereunto the couetous men subiect themselues , to attaine to these goodes , whereby their conscience is filled with a perpetuall remorse , which neuer leaues them in quiet : sufficeth that in this ouer-vehement exercise , which busieth and abuseth the greatest part of the world , the body is slain , the mind is weakned , the soule is lost without any pleasure or contentment .

Come we to ambition , which ( by a greedinesse of honour ) fondly holdeth occupied the greatest persons : Think we there to finde more ? nay rather , lesse . As the one deceiueth vs , giuing vs for al our trauel , but a vile excrement of the earth : so the other repayes vs , but with smoke and winde ; the rewardes of this being as vaine , as those of that were grosse . Both in the one and the other , wee fall into a bottomelesse pit : but into this the fall by so much the more dangerous , as at the first shew , the water is more pleasant and cleare . Of those that giue themselues to court ambition , some are greate about Princes , others commaunders of Armies : both sortes , according to their degree you see saluted , reuerenced , and adored of those that are vnder them . You see them apparelled in purple , in scarlet , and in cloth of golde : it seemes , at first sight , there is no contentment in the world but theirs . But men knowe not , how heauie an ounce of that vaine honour weighes , what those reuerences cost them , and how dearely they paye for an ell of those rich stufs : who knewe them well , would neuer buy them at the price . The one hath attained to this degree , after a long and painefull seruice , hazarding his life vpon euerie occasion , with losse oft times of a leg or an arme , and that at the pleasure of a Prince , that more regards a hundred perches of ground on his neighbors frontiers , then the liues of a hundred thousand such as hee : vnfortunate , to serue who loues him not : and foolish , to thinke himself in honour with him , that makes so litle reckening to lose him for a thing of no worth . Others growe vp by flattering a Prince , and long submitting their tongues & hands to say and do without difference whatsoeuer they will haue them : whereunto a good minde can neuer command it selfe . They shall haue indured a thousand iniuries , receiued a thousand disgraces ; and as neere as they seem about the Prince , they are neuerthelesse alwayes as the Lyons keeper , who by long patience , a thousand feedinges , and a thousand clawings , hath made a fierce Lyon familiar ; yet giues him neuer meate , but with pulling backe his hand , alwaies in feare least he should catch him : and if once in a yeare hee bites him , hee sets it so close , that he is paied for a long time after . Such is the ende of all Princes fauourites . When a Prince after song breathing hath raised a man to greate height , hee makes it his pastime , at what time he seemes to be at the top of his trauell , to cast him downe at an instant : when hee hath filled him with all wealth , hee wrings him after as a sponge ; louing none but himselfe , and thinking euerie one made , but to serue , and please him . These blind Courtiers make themselues belieue , that they haue friendes , and manie that honour them : 〈◊〉 considering that 〈◊〉 make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and honour euerie bodi●●● so others doe by them . Their superiours disdaine them , & neuer but with scorn doe so much as salute them ▪ their inferiors salute them , because they haue neede of them ( I meane of their fortune , of their foode , of their apparell , not of their person ) : and for their equals , betweene whom commonly friendship consists , they enuie each other , accuse each other , crosse each other ; continually grieued either at their owne harme , or at others good . Now , what greater hel is ther , what greater torment , than enuie ? which in truth is nought else but a feauer Hectique of the minde : so they are vtterly frustrate of all friendship , euer iudged by the wisest the chiefe & soueraigne good among men . Will you see it more clearely ? Let but Fortune turne her backe , euerie man turns from them : let hir frowne , euerie man lookes aside on them : let them once be disroabed of their triumphall garment , no bodie will any more know them . Againe , let there be apparelled in it the most vnworthie , and infamous whatsoeuer : euen he without difficulty , by vertue of his robe , shall inherit all the honours the other had don him . In the meane time they are puffed vp , and grow proude , as the Asse which caried the image of Isis was for the honours done to the Goddesse , & regard not that it is the fortune they carrie which is honoured , not themselues , on whom as on Asses , many times she wil be caried . But you will say : At least so long as that fortune endured , they were at ease , & had their contentment ; & who hath 3. or 4. or more yeares of happie time , hath not bin al his life vnhappie . True , if this bee to be at ease , continually to feare to bee caste down from that degree , whereunto they are raised : and dayly to desire with great trauell to clime yet higher . Those ( my friend ) whom thou takest so well at their ease , because thou seest them but without , are within farre otherwise . They are faire built prisons , full within of deep ditches , and dungeons : full of darkenesse , serpents and tormentes . Thou supposest them lodged at large , and they thinke their lodgings strait . Thou thinkest them very high , & they thinke themselues verie lowe . Now , as sick is hee , and many times more sicke , who thinks himselfe so , then who indeede is . Suppose them to bee Kings : if they thinke themselues slaues , they are no better : for what are wee but by opinion ? You see them well followed and attended : and euen those whom they haue chosen for their guarde , they distrust . Alone or in companie euer they are in feare . Alone they looke behinde them : in company they haue an eye on euery side of them . They drinke in gold and siluer ; but in those , not in earth or glasse , is poyson prepared and d●unke . They haue their beds soft & well made : when they lay them to sleepe you shall not heare a mouse stir in the chamber : not so much as a fly shal come neer their faces . Yet neuerthelesse , where the countrey man sleeps at the fal of a great riuer , at the noyse of a market , hauing no other bed but the earth , nor couering but the heauens , these in the middest of this silence and delicacie , doe nothing but turn from side to side , it seemes still that they heare some bodie , their rest it selfe is without rest Lastly , wil you know what the diuersitie is betweene the most hardly intreated prisoners and them both are enchained , both loaden with letters , but that the one hath them of iron , the other of gold ; and that the one is tied but by the body , the other by the minde . The prisoner drawes his fetters after him , the courtier wears his vpon him . The prisoners minde sometimes conforts the paine of his body , and sings in the midst of his miseries : the Courtier tormented in mind , wearieth incessantly his body , & can neuer giue it rest . And as for the contentment you imagine they haue , you are there in yet more deceiued . You iudge and esteeme them greate , because they are raised high : but as fondly , as who shuld iudge a dwarf great , for being set on a Tower , or on the toppe of a mountaine . You measure ( so good a Geometrician you are ) the image with his base , which were conuenient ( to knowe his true height ) to bee measur'd by it self : wheras you regarde not the height of the image , but the height of the place it standes vppon . You deeme them great ( if in this earth there can bee greatnesse , which in respect of the whole heauens is but a point ) : But coulde you enter into their minds , you would iudge , that neither they are greate ; true greatnesse consisting in contempt of those vaine greatnesses , whereunto they are slaues : nor seem vnto themselues so , seeing dayly they are aspiring higher , and neuer where they would bee . Some one sets downe a bound in his mind ; Could I attain to such a degree , lo , I were content : I would then rest my selfe . Hath hee attained it ? hee giues himselfe not so much as a breathing : hee would yet ascende higher . That which is beneath , hee counts a toy : it is in his opinion but one step . Hee reputes himselfe lowe , because there is some one higher , in stead of reputing himselfe high , because ther be a million lower : & so high he climes at last , that either his breath failes him by the way , or he slides from the top to the bottom . Or is he get vp by al his trauel it is but as to find himself on the top of the Alpes , not aboue the cloudes , windes and stormes : but rather at the deuotion of lightnings and tempestes , and whatsoeuer else horrible , and dangerous is engendred , and conceiued in the ayre : which most commonly taketh pleasure to thunderbolt and dash into powder that proude height of theirs . It may be herin you will agree with mee , by reason of the examples wherwith both histories , & mens memories are ful . But say you , such at least whom nature hath sent into the world with crownes on their heads , and scepters in their hands : such as from their birth she hath set in that height , as they neede take no paine to ascende : seeme without controuersie exempt from all these iniuries , and by consequence may call themselues happie . It may bee indeede they feele lesse such incommodities , hauing been borne , bred , and brought vp among them : as one borne neere the downefals of Nilus becomes deafe to the founde : in prison , laments not the want of libertie : among the Cimmerians in perpetuall night , wisheth not for have : on the top of the Alpes , thinks not strange of the mists , the tempests , the snowes , and the stormes . Yet free doubtlesse they are not , when the lightening often blasteth a flowre of their crownes , or breakes their scepter in their hands : when a drift of snowe ouerwhelmes them : when a mist of heauinesse , and griefe , continually blindeth their wit and vnderstanding . Crowned they are indeed ; but with a crowne of thornes . They beare a scepter : but it is of a reed more then any thing in the world pliable and obedient to all windes : it being so far off that such a crowne can cure the maigrims of the mind , & such a scepter keepe off and fray away the griefs and cares which houer about them ; that it is contrariwise the crown that brings them , and the scepter which from al parts attracts them . O crowne , said the Persian Monarch , who knew how heauie thou sittest on the head , would not vouchsafe to take thee vp , though hee found thee in his way . This prince it seem'd gaue for tune to the whole world , distributed vnto men haps and mishaps at his pleasure could in show make euery man content : himselfe in the meane while freely confessing , that in the whole world , which he held in his hand there was nothing but griefe , & vnhappinesse And what wil al the rest tell vs , if they list to vtter what they found ? We will not aske them who haue concluded a miserable life with a dishonorable death : who haue beheld their kingdomes buried before them , & haue in greate miserie long ouerliued their greatnesse . Not of Dionyse of Sicil , more content with a handfull of twigs to whip litle children of Corinth in a choole , then with the scepter , wherewith he had beaten al Sicil : nor of Sylla , who hauing robbed the whole State of Rome , which had before robbed the whole world , neuer found meanes of rest in himselfe , but by robbing himselfe of his owne estate , with incredible hazard both of his power & authority . But demand we the opinion of king Salomon , a man indued withsingular gifts of God , rich and wealthy of all thinges . who sought for treasure from the Iles : He will teach vs by a booke of purpose , that hauing tried all the felicities of the earth , he found nothing but vanity , trauell , & vexation of spirit . Aske wee the Emperour Augustus , who peaceably possessed the whole world : Hee will bewaile his life past , and amonge infinite toyles wish for the rest of the meanest man of the earth : accountinge that daye most happie , when he might vnload himself of this insupportable greatnes , to liue quietly among he least . Of Tiberius his successor , he wil confesse vnto vs that hee holds y● Empire as a wolf by the eares , and that ( if without danger of biting he might ) he would gladly let it goe , complayning on Fortune for lifting him so high , & then taking away the ladder , that he could not come down again . Of Dioclesian , a Prince of so great wisdome and vertue in the opinion of the world : he wil prefer his voluntarie banishment at Salona , before al the Roman Empire . Finally , the Emperor Charles the fift , esteemed by our Age most happie that hath liued these many ages : hee will curse his conquests , his victories , his triumphes : and not be ashamed to confesse that farre more good in comparison he hath felt in one day of his Monkish solitariness , then in all his triumphant life . Now , shall wee thinke those happy in this imaginate greatnesse , who themselues think themselues vnhappy ? seeking their happinesse in lessening themselues , & not finding in the world one place to rest this greatnesse , or one bed quietly to sleep in ? Happie is he onely who in mind liues contented : and hee most of all vnhappie , whome nothing he can haue can content . Then miserable Pyrrhus king of Albany , who would winne al the world , to win ( as he said ) rest and went so farre to seeke that which was so neere him . But more miserable , Alexander , that being borne King of a great Realme , and Conqueror almost of the earth , sought for more worldes to satisfie his foolish ambition , with in three daies content with sixe foot of ground . To conclude , are they borne on the highest Alpes ? they seeke to scale heauen . Haue they subdued al the Kinges of the earth ? they haue quarelles to plead with God , and indeuour to treade vnder foote his kingdome . They haue no ende nor limite , till God laughing at their vaine purposes , when they thinke themselues at the last step , thunderstriketh al this presumption , breaking in shiuers their scepters in their handes , and oftentimes intrapping them in their owne crownes . At a word , whatsoeuer happines can be in that ambition promiseth , is but suffering much il , to get ill . Men thinke by dayly climing higher to pluck themselues out of this ill : and the height wherunto they so pamfully aspire , is the height of misery it self . I speak not here of the wretchednes of them , who all their life haue held out their cap to receiue the almes of Court fortune , and can get nothing , often with incredible hart griefe , seeing some by lesse pains taken haue riches fal into their hands : of them , who iustling one another to haue it , lose it , and cast it into the handes of a third : Of those , who holding it in their hands to hold it faster , haue lost it through their fingers . Such by all men are esteemed vnhappie , & are indeed so , because they iudge themselues so . It sufficeth that al these liberalities , which the Deuill casteth vs as out at a window , are but baits : all these pleasures but ambushes : and that hee doth but make his sport of vs , who striue one with another for such things , as most vnhappy is hee , that hath best hap to finde them . Well now , you will say , the Couetous in all his goods , hath no good : the Ambitious , at the best hee can bee , is but ill . But may there not be some , who supplying the place of Iustice , or being neere about a Prince , may without following such vnbridled passions , pleasantly enioye their goods , ioyning honour with rest and contentment of minde ? Surely , in former ages ( ther yet remaining among men some sparks of sinceritie ) in some sort it might bee so : but being of that composition they now are , I see not how it may be in any sort . For , deale you in affaires of estate in these times , either you shal do wel , or you shall do il . I fil , you haue God for your enemy , & your owne conscience for a perpetually tormenting executioner . If well , you haue men for your enemies , and of men the greatest : whose enuy & malice wil spie you out , & whose cruelty & tyranny will euermore threaten you . Please the people , you please a beast : & pleasing such , ought to be displeasing to your selfe . Please your selfe , you displease god : please him , you incur a thousand dangers in the world , with purchase of a thousand displeasures . Wherof it grows , that if you could hear the talke of the wisest and least discontent of this kinde of men , whether they speake aduisedly , or their wordes passe them by force of truth , one would gladly change garment with his tenant : another preacheth how goodly an estate it is to haue nothing : a third , complaining that his braines are broken with the noise of Court or Palace , hath no other thought , but as soone as he may to retire himself thence . So that you shall not see any but is displeased with his own calling , & enuieth that of another : readie neuerthelesse to repent him , if a man should take him at his word . None but is wearie of the businesses wherunto his age is subiect , & wisheth not to be elder , to free himselfe of them : albeit otherwise he keepeth off old age , as much as in him lyeth .

What must wee then do in so great a contrariety & confusion of minds ? Must we , to find true humanitie , flie the societie of men , & hide vs in forrests among wild beasts ? to auoyde these vnruly passions , eschue the assembly of creatures supposed reasonable ? to plucke vs out of the euils of the worlde , sequester our selues from the world ? Could wee in so doing liue at rest , it were something .

But alas ! men cannot take heerein what part they would : and euen they which doe , finde not there all the rest they sought for . Some would gladly do : but shame of the world recals them . Fooles , to bee ashamed of what in their harts they condemne : & more fooles , to bee aduised by the greatest enemie they can or ought to haue . Others are borne in hand that they ought to serue the publicke ; not marking , that who counsel them , serue onely them selues : and that the more part would not much seek the publicke , but that they found their owne particular . Some are told , that by their good example they may amend others : and consider not that a hundred sound men , euen Physicians themselues , may sooner catch the plague in an infected Towne , then one bee healed : that it is but to to tempt God , to enter therein : that against so contagious an ayre there is no preseruatiue , but in getting far from it . Finally , that as little as the fresh waters , falling into the sea , canne take from it his saltnesse : so little canne one Lot or two , or three , reforme a Court of Sodome . And as concerning the wisest , who ( no lesse careful for their soules , then bodies ) seek to bring them into a sound and wholesome ayre , far from the infection of wickednes : and who ledde by the hand of some Angell of God , retire themselues in season , as Lot into some little village of Segor , out of the corruption of the worlde , into some Countrey place from the infected townes , there quietly employing the time in some knowledge and serious contemplation : I willingly yeelde they are in a place of lesse danger , yet because they carrie the danger in themselues , not absolutely exempt from danger . They flie the court ; & a court follows them on all sides : they endeuour to escape the world ; and the worlde pursues them to death . Hardly in this Worlde can they finde a place where the Worlde findes them not : so greedily it seekes to murther them . And if by some speciall grace of God they seem for a while free from these dangers , they haue som pouertie that troubles them , some domesticall debate that torments them , or some familiar spirit that tempts them : briefly , the world dayly in some sort or other makes it selfe felt of them . But the worst is , when we are out of these externall warres and troubles , we finde great ciuill warre within our selues ; the flesh against the spirit , passion against reason , earth against heauen , the world within vs fighting for the world , euermore so lodged in the bottome of our owne hearts , that on no side we can flie from it . I will say more : hee makes profession to flie the world , who seekes thereby the prayse of the world : hee faineth to run away , who according to the prouerbe ; by drawing back sets himselfe forwarde . hee refuseth honours , that would thereby be praied to take them : and hides him from men , to the end they should com to seeke him . So the world often harbours in disguised attire among them that fly the world . This is an abuse . But follow we the company of men , the world hath his Court among them : seek wee the Deserts , it hath there his dens & places of resort , and in the Desert it selfe tempteth Christ lesus . Retire we our selues into our selues , wee finde it there as vnclean as any where . We cannot make the world dye in vs , but by dying our selues . Wee are in the world , and the world in vs , and to separate vs from the world , we must separate vs from our selues . Now this separation is called Death . We are , we think , come out of the contagious City ▪ but wee are not aduised that we haue sucked the bad ayre , that we carrie the plague with vs , that we so participate with it , that through rockes , through deserts , through mountaines , it euer accompanieth vs . Hauing auoyded the contagion of others , yet we haue it in our selues . We haue withdrawen vs out of men , but not withdrawn man out of vs . The tempestuous sea torments vs : we are grieued at the heart , & desirous to vomit : and to be discharged therof , we remoue out of one ship into another , from a greater to a lesse : wee promise our selues rest in vaine : they being alwaies the same windes that blowe , the same waues that swell , the same humors that are stirred . To all , no other port , no other meane of tranquillitie but onely death . We were sicke in a chamber neer the street , or neere the market : wee caused our selues to bee carried into some backer closet , where the noise was not so great . But though there the noyse was lesse : yet was the feauer there neuer the lesse : and therby lost nothing of his heate . Change bed , chamber , house , countrey , againe and again : we shal euery where find the same vnrest , because euery where we finde our selues : and seeke not so much to be others , as to bee otherwheres . Wee follow solitarinesse , to fly carefulnesse . We retire vs ( so say wee ) from the wicked : but cary with vs our auarice , our ambition , our riotousnesse , all our corrupt affections : which breed in vs 1000. remorses ▪ & 1000. times each day bring to our remembrance the garlike & onions of Egypt . Daily they passe the Ferrie with vs : so that both on this side , and beyond the water , we are in cōinuall combat . Now could we cassere this company which eates and gnawes our mind , doubtlesse we should be at rest , not in solitarinesse onely , but euen in the thicket of men . For the life of man vppon earth is but a continuall warrefare . Are wee deliuered from externall practices ? wee are to take heede of internall espialles . Are the Greekes gone away ? wee haue a Sinon within , that wil be tray them the place . We must euer be waking , hauing an eie to the watch , and weapons in our hands , if wee will not euerie houre be surprised , and giuen vp to the wil of our enemies . And how at last can wee escape ? Not by the woods , by the riuers , nor mountains : not by throwing our selues into a presse , nor by thrusting our selues into a hole . One onely meane there is , which is death : which in the ende separating our spirit from our flesh , the pure and cleane part of our soule from the vncleane , which within vs euermore bandeth it self for the world , appeaseth by this separation that , which conioyned in one & the same person could not , without vtter choaking of the spirit , but be in perpetuall contention .