allowed unto every one of us, and how soon it vanisheth into the general
age of the world: of the common substance, and of the common soul
also what a small portion is allotted unto us: and in what a little
clod of the whole earth (as it were) it is that thou doest crawl.
After thou shalt rightly have considered these things with thyself;
fancy not anything else in the world any more to be of any weight and
moment but this, to do that only which thine own nature doth require;
and to conform thyself to that which the common nature doth afford.
XXVI. What is the present estate of my understanding?
For herein lieth all indeed. As for all other things,
they are without the compass of mine own will: and if without
the compass of my will, then are they as dead things unto me,
and as it were mere smoke.