such is thy natural disability that way. Be it so:
yet there be many other good things, for the want of
which thou canst not plead the want or natural ability.
Let them be seen in thee, which depend wholly from thee;
sincerity, gravity, laboriousness, contempt of pleasures;
be not querulous, be Content with little, be kind, be free;
avoid all superfluity, all vain prattling; be magnanimous.
Doest not thou perceive, how many things there be,
which notwithstanding any pretence of natural indisposition
and unfitness, thou mightest have performed and exhibited,
and yet still thou doest voluntarily continue drooping downwards?
Or wilt thou say. that it is through defect of thy
natural constitution, that thou art constrained to murmur,
to be base and wretched to flatter; now to accuse,
and now to please, and pacify thy body: to be vainglorious,
to be so giddy-headed., and unsettled in thy thoughts? nay
(witnesses be the Gods) of all these thou mightest have been
rid long ago: only, this thou must have been contented with,
to have borne the blame of one that is somewhat slow and dull.
wherein thou must so exercise thyself, as one who neither doth
much take to heart this his natural defect, nor yet pleaseth
himself in it.
Vi. Such there be, who when they have done a good turn to any,
are ready to set them on the score for it, and to require retaliation.
Others there be, who though they stand not upon retaliation,
to require any, yet they think with themselves nevertheless, that such a
one is their debtor, and they know as their word is what they have done.
Others again there be, who when they have done any such thing,
do not so much as know what they have done; but are like unto the vine,
which beareth her grapes, and when once she hath borne her own
proper fruit, is contented and seeks for no further recompense.
As a horse after a race, and a hunting dog when he hath hunted,
and a bee when she hath made her honey, look not for applause
and commendation; so neither doth that man that rightly doth
understand his own nature when he hath done a good turn:
but from one doth proceed to do another, even as the vine after she hath
once borne fruit in her own proper season, is ready for another time.
Thou therefore must be one of them, who what they do, barely do it without
any further thought, and are in a manner insensible of what they do.
'Nay but,' will some reply perchance, 'this very thing a rational
man is bound unto, to understand what it is, that he doeth.'
For it is the property, say they, of one that is naturally sociable,
to be sensible, that he doth operate sociably: nay, and to desire,
that the party him self that is sociably dealt with, should be
sensible of it too. I answer, That which thou sayest is true indeed,
but the true meaning of that which is said, thou dost not understand.
And therefore art thou one of those first, whom I mentioned.
For they also are led by a probable appearance of reason.
But if thou dost desire to understand truly what it is that is said,
fear not that thou shalt therefore give over any sociable action.
VII. The form of the Athenians' prayer did run thus:
'0 rain, rain, good Jupiter, upon all the grounds and fields
that belong to the Athenians.' Either we should not pray at all,
or thus absolutely and freely; and not every one for himself
in particular alone.