ho naturally formed them as relations. For of every
other thing in this world man is desirous, either that he may through
it attain to power, or else some worldly lust; except of the true
friend, whom he loves sometimes for affection and for fidelity, tho
he expect to himself no other rewards. Nature joins and cements
friends together with inseparable love. But with these worldly goods,
and with this present wealth, men make oftener enemies than friends.
By these and by many such things it may be evident to all men that all
the bodily goods are inferior to the faculties of the soul.

We indeed think that a man is the stronger because he is great in his
body. The fairness, moreover, and the vigor of the body, rejoices and
delights the man, and health makes him cheerful. In all these bodily
felicities, men seek simple happiness, as it seems to them. For
whatsoever every man chiefly loves above all other things, that he
persuades himself is best for him, and that is his highest good. When,
therefore, he has acquired that, he imagines that he may be very
happy. I do not deny that these goods and this happiness are the
highest good of this present life. For every man considers that thing
best which he chiefly loves above other things; and therefore he
persuades himself that he is very happy if he can obtain what he then
most desires. Is not now clearly enough shown to thee the form of the
false goods, that is, then, possessions, dignity, and power, and
glory, and pleasure? Concerning pleasure Epicurus the philosopher
said, when he inquired concerning all those other goods which we
before mentioned; then said he that pleasure was the highest good,
because all the other goods which we before mentioned gratify the mind
and delight it, but pleasure alone chiefly gratifies the body.

But we will still speak concerning the nature of men, and concerning
their pursuits. Tho, then, their mind and their nature be now dimmed,
and they are by that fall sunk down to evil, and thither inclined, yet
they are desirous, so far as they can and may, of the highest good. As
a drunken man knows that he should go to his house and to his rest,
and yet is not able to find the way thither, so is it also with the
mind when it is weighed down by the anxieties of this world. It is
sometimes intoxicated and misled by them, so far that it can not
rightly find out good. Nor yet does it appear to those men that they
at all err, who are desirous to obtain