own. For nobility seemeth to be a certain praise proceeding from
our parents' deserts. But if praising causeth fame, they must
necessarily be famous who are praised. Wherefore the fame of others, if
thou hast none of thine own, maketh not thee renowned. But if there be
anything good in nobility, I judge it only to be this, that it imposeth
a necessity upon those which are noble, not to suffer their nobility to
degenerate from the virtue of their ancestors.

[128] Eurip. _Androm._ 319.

VI.

Omne hominum genus in terris simili surgit ab ortu.
Vnus enim rerum pater est, unus cuncta ministrat.
Ille dedit Phoebo radios dedit et cornua lunae,
Ille homines etiam terris dedit ut sidera caelo,
Hic clausit membris animos celsa sede petitos. 5
Mortales igitur cunctos edit nobile germen.
Quid genus et proauos strepitis? Si primordia uestra
Auctoremque deum spectes, nullus degener exstat,
Ni uitiis peiora fouens proprium deserat ortum.

VI.

The general race of men from a like birth is born.
All things one Father have, Who doth them all adorn,
Who gave the sun his rays, and the pale moon her horn,
The lofty heaven for stars, low earth for mortals chose;
He souls fetched down from high in bodies did enclose;
And thus from noble seed all men did first compose.
Why brag you of your stock? Since none is counted base,
If you consider God the author of your race,
But he that with foul vice doth his own birth deface.

VII.

Quid autem de corporis uoluptatibus loquar, quarum appetentia quidem plena
est anxietatis; satietas uero poenitentiae? Quantos illae morbos, quam
intolerabiles dolores quasi quendam fructum nequitiae fruentium solent
referre corporibus! Quarum motus quid habeat iucunditatis, ignoro. Tristes
uero esse uoluptatum exitus, quisquis reminisci libidinum suarum uolet,
intelleget. Quae si beatos explicare possunt, nihil causae est quin pecudes
quoque beatae esse dicantur quarum omnis ad explendam corporalem lacunam
festinat intentio. Honestissima quidem coniugis foret liberorumque
iucunditas, sed nimis e natura dictum est nescio quem filios inuenisse
tortorem; quorum quam sit mordax quaecumque condicio, neque alias expertum
te neque nunc anxium necesse est admonere. In quo Euripidis mei sententiam
probo, qui carentem liberis infortunio dixit esse felicem.

VII.

Now what should I speak of bodily pleasures, the desire of wh