t intruders as some are,
no sharkers, no cony-catchers, no prowlers, no smell-feasts, praters,
panders, parasites, bawds, drunkards, whoremasters; necessity and defect
compel them to be honest; as Mitio told Demea in the [4072]comedy,

"Haec si neque ego neque tu fecimus,
Non sinit egestas facere nos."

"If we be honest 'twas poverty made us so:" if we melancholy men be not as
bad as he that is worst, 'tis our dame melancholy kept us so: _Non deerat
voluntas sed facultas_. [4073]

Besides they are freed in this from many other infirmities, solitariness
makes them more apt to contemplate, suspicion wary, which is a necessary
humour in these times, [4074]_Nam pol que maxime cavet, is saepe cautor
captus est_, "he that takes most heed, is often circumvented, and
overtaken." Fear and sorrow keep them temperate and sober, and free them
from any dissolute acts, which jollity and boldness thrust men upon: they
are therefore no _sicarii_, roaring boys, thieves or assassins. As they are
soon dejected, so they are as soon, by soft words and good persuasions,
reared. Wearisomeness of life makes them they are not so besotted on the
transitory vain pleasures of the world. If they dote in one thing, they are
wise and well understanding in most other. If it be inveterate, they are
_insensati_, most part doting, or quite mad, insensible of any wrongs,
ridiculous to others, but most happy and secure to themselves. Dotage is a
state which many much magnify and commend: so is simplicity, and folly, as
he said, [4075]_sic hic furor o superi, sit mihi perpetuus_. Some think
fools and dizzards live the merriest lives, as Ajax in Sophocles, _Nihil
scire vita jucundissima_, "'tis the pleasantest life to know nothing;"
_iners malorum remedium ignorantia_, "ignorance is a downright remedy of
evils." These curious arts and laborious sciences, Galen's, Tully's,
Aristotle's, Justinian's, do but trouble the world some think; we might
live better with that illiterate Virginian simplicity, and gross ignorance;
entire idiots do best, they are not macerated with cares, tormented with
fears, and anxiety, as other wise men are: for as [4076]he said, if folly
were a pain, you should hear them howl, roar, and cry out in every house,
as you go by in the street, but they are most free, jocund, and merry, and
in some [4077]countries, as amongst the Turks, honoured for saints, and
abundantly maintained out of the common stock. [4078]They are no