An ill fact is one thing, an ill
fortune is another; yet both oftentimes sway us alike, by the error of
our thinking.
fortune is another; yet both oftentimes sway us alike, by the error of
our thinking.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
He is not easily emergent.
_Negotia_. --In great affairs it is a work of difficulty to please all.
And ofttimes we lose the occasions of carrying a business well and
thoroughly by our too much haste. For passions are spiritual rebels, and
raise sedition against the understanding.
_Amor patriae_. --There is a necessity all men should love their country: he
that professeth the contrary may be delighted with his words, but his
heart is there.
_Ingenia_. --Natures that are hardened to evil you shall sooner break than
make straight; they are like poles that are crooked and dry, there is no
attempting them.
_Applausus_. --We praise the things we hear with much more willingness than
those we see, because we envy the present and reverence the past;
thinking ourselves instructed by the one, and overlaid by the other.
_Opinio_. --Opinion is a light, vain, crude, and imperfect thing; settled
in the imagination, but never arriving at the understanding, there to
obtain the tincture of reason. We labour with it more than truth. There
is much more holds us than presseth us.
An ill fact is one thing, an ill
fortune is another; yet both oftentimes sway us alike, by the error of
our thinking.
_Impostura_. --Many men believe not themselves what they would persuade
others; and less do the things which they would impose on others; but
least of all know what they themselves most confidently boast. Only they
set the sign of the cross over their outer doors, and sacrifice to their
gut and their groin in their inner closets.
_Jactura vitae_. --What a deal of cold business doth a man misspend the
better part of life in! in scattering compliments, tendering visits,
gathering and venting news, following feasts and plays, making a little
winter-love in a dark corner.
Hypocrita. --_Puritanus Hypocrita est Haereticus_, _quem opinio propriae
perspicaciae_, _qua sibi videtur_, _cum paucis in Ecclesia dogmatibus
errores quosdam animadvertisse_, _de statu mentis deturbavit: unde sacro
furore percitus_, _phrenetice pugnat contra magistratus_, _sic ratus
obedientiam praestare Deo_. {14}
_Mutua auxilia_. --Learning needs rest: sovereignty gives it. Sovereignty
needs counsel: learning affords it. There is such a consociation of
offices between the prince and whom his favour breeds, that they may help
to sustain his power as he their knowledge. It is the greatest part of
his liberality, his favour; and from whom doth he hear discipline more
willingly, or the arts discoursed more gladly, than from those whom his
own bounty and benefits have made able and faithful?
_Cognit. univers_.
_Negotia_. --In great affairs it is a work of difficulty to please all.
And ofttimes we lose the occasions of carrying a business well and
thoroughly by our too much haste. For passions are spiritual rebels, and
raise sedition against the understanding.
_Amor patriae_. --There is a necessity all men should love their country: he
that professeth the contrary may be delighted with his words, but his
heart is there.
_Ingenia_. --Natures that are hardened to evil you shall sooner break than
make straight; they are like poles that are crooked and dry, there is no
attempting them.
_Applausus_. --We praise the things we hear with much more willingness than
those we see, because we envy the present and reverence the past;
thinking ourselves instructed by the one, and overlaid by the other.
_Opinio_. --Opinion is a light, vain, crude, and imperfect thing; settled
in the imagination, but never arriving at the understanding, there to
obtain the tincture of reason. We labour with it more than truth. There
is much more holds us than presseth us.
An ill fact is one thing, an ill
fortune is another; yet both oftentimes sway us alike, by the error of
our thinking.
_Impostura_. --Many men believe not themselves what they would persuade
others; and less do the things which they would impose on others; but
least of all know what they themselves most confidently boast. Only they
set the sign of the cross over their outer doors, and sacrifice to their
gut and their groin in their inner closets.
_Jactura vitae_. --What a deal of cold business doth a man misspend the
better part of life in! in scattering compliments, tendering visits,
gathering and venting news, following feasts and plays, making a little
winter-love in a dark corner.
Hypocrita. --_Puritanus Hypocrita est Haereticus_, _quem opinio propriae
perspicaciae_, _qua sibi videtur_, _cum paucis in Ecclesia dogmatibus
errores quosdam animadvertisse_, _de statu mentis deturbavit: unde sacro
furore percitus_, _phrenetice pugnat contra magistratus_, _sic ratus
obedientiam praestare Deo_. {14}
_Mutua auxilia_. --Learning needs rest: sovereignty gives it. Sovereignty
needs counsel: learning affords it. There is such a consociation of
offices between the prince and whom his favour breeds, that they may help
to sustain his power as he their knowledge. It is the greatest part of
his liberality, his favour; and from whom doth he hear discipline more
willingly, or the arts discoursed more gladly, than from those whom his
own bounty and benefits have made able and faithful?
_Cognit. univers_.
