ffines fuisse maleficio, quod tuis inbuti disciplinis,
tuis instituti moribus sumus. Ita non est satis nihil mihi tuam profuisse
reuerentiam, nisi ultro tu mea potius offensione lacereris. At uero hic
etiam nostris malis cumulus accedit, quod existimatio plurimorum non rerum
merita sed fortunae spectat euentum eaque tantum iudicat esse prouisa quae
felicitas commendauerit. Quo fit ut existimatio bona prima omnium deserat
infelices. Qui nunc populi rumores, quam dissonae multiplicesque
sententiae, piget reminisci. Hoc tantum dixerim ultimam esse aduersae
fortunae sarcinam, quod dum miseris aliquod crimen affingitur, quae
perferunt meruisse creduntur. Et ego quidem bonis omnibus pulsus,
dignitatibus exutus, existimatione foedatus ob beneficium supplicium tuli.

Videre autem uideor nefarias sceleratorum officinas gaudio laetitiaque
fluitantes, perditissimum quemque nouis delationum fraudibus imminentem,
iacere bonos nostri discriminis terrore prostratos, flagitiosum quemque ad
audendum quidem facinus impunitate, ad efficiendum uero praemiis incitari,
insontes autem non modo securitate, uerum ipsa etiam defensione priuatos.
Itaque libet exclamare:

[86] uilitatis _Glareanus_; uilitas _codd._

[87] [Greek: theon] _codd._

[88] ipsa _Sitzmannus_; ipso _codd._

IV.

"Understandest thou these things," saith she, "and do they make
impression in thy mind? Art thou 'like the ass, deaf to the lyre'? Why
weepest thou? Why sheddest thou so many tears? Speak out; hide not thy
thoughts.[89] If thou expectest to be cured, thou must discover thy
wound.[90]"

Then I, collecting the forces of my mind together, made her answer in
these words: "Doth the cruelty of fortune's rage need further
declaration, or doth it not sufficiently appear of itself? Doth not the
very countenance of this place move thee? Is this the library which thou
thyself hadst chosen to sit in at my house, in which thou hast
oftentimes discoursed with me of the knowledge of divine and human
things? Had I this attire or countenance when I searched the secrets of
nature with thee, when thou describedst unto me the course of the stars
with thy geometrical rod, when thou didst frame my conversation and the
manner of my whole life according to the pattern of the celestial order?
Are these the rewards which thy obedient servants have? But thou didst
decree that sentence by the mouth of Plato: That commonwealths should be
ha