lest I should seem to recede from my title, and make a
satire instead of a panegyric: nor let anyone imagine that I reflect on
good princes, by commending of bad ones: I did this only in brief, to
shew that there is no one particular person can lead a comfortable life,
except he be entered of my society, and retain me for his friend. Nor
indeed can it be otherwise, since fortune, that empress of the world, is
so much in league and amity with me, that to wise men she is always
stingy, and sparing of her gifts, but is profusely liberal and lavish to
fools. Thus Timotheus, the Athenian commander, in all his expeditions,
was a mirror of good luck, because he was a little underwitted; from him
was occasioned the Grecian proverb, 'H _evdovtos kvptos aipel_, _The net
fills, though the fisherman sleeps_; there is also another favourable
proverb, _yhavf itttatai_, _The owl flies_ an omen of success. But
against wise men are pointed these ill-aboding proverbs, '_Ev tetpadi.
yewnoevtas, Born under a bad planet_; equum habet seianum, _He cannot
ride the fore-horse_; aurum tholosanum, _Ill-gotten goods will never
prosper_; and more to the same purpose. But I forbear from any farther
proverbializing, lest I should be thought to have rifled my Erasmus's
adages. To return, therefore, fortune we find still favouring the blunt,
and flushing the forward; strokes and smoothes up fools, crowning all
their undertakings with success; but wisdom makes her followers bashful,
sneaking, and timorous, and therefore you see that they are commonly
reduced to hard shifts, must grapple with poverty, cold and hunger, must
lie recluse, despised, and unregarded, while fools roll in money, are
advanced to dignities and offices, and in a word, have the whole world
at command. If any one think it happy to be a favourite at court, and to
manage the disposal of places and preferments, alas, this happiness is
so far from being attainable by wisdom, that the very suspicion of it
would put a stop to all advancement Has any man a mind to raise himself
a good estate? Alas what dealer in the world would ever get a farthing,
if he be so wise as to scruple at perjury, blush at a lie, or stick at
any fraud and over-reaching.

[Illustration: 336]

Farther, does any one appear a candidate for any ecclesiastical dignity?
Why, an ass, or a plough-jobber, shall sooner gain it than a wise man.
Again, are you in love with any handsome lady? Alas, women-kind are so
addicted