said, that an honest man in these days, must needs be more honest than in ages heretofore, propter antiperistasin, because the shutting of him in the midst of contraries, must needs make the honesty stronger and more compact in itself. The reprehension of this colour is: first many things of amplitude in their kind, do as it were engross to themselves all, and leave that which is next them most destitute, as the shoots or underwood, that grow near a great and spread tree, is the most pined and shrubby wood of the field, because the great tree doth deprive and deceive them of sap and nourishment; so he saith well, divitis servi maxime servi: and the comparison was pleasant of him, that compared courtiers attendant in the courts of princes without great place or office, to fasting-days, which were next the holy-days, but otherwise were the leanest days in all the week.

Another reprehension is, that things of greatness and predominancy, though they do not extenuate the things adjoining in substance, yet they drown them and obscure them in shew and appearance; and therefore the astronomers say, that whereas in all other planets conjunction is the perfectest amity; the sun contrariwise is good by aspect, but evil by conjunction.

A third reprehension is, because evil approacheth to good sometimes for concealment, sometimes

for protection; and good to evil for conversion and reformation. So hypocrisy draweth near to religion for covert, and hiding itself; sæpe latet vitium proximitate boni; and sanctuary men, which were commonly inordinate men and malefactors, were wont to be nearest to priests and prelates, and holy men; for the majesty of good things is such, as the confines of them are reverend. On the other side, our Saviour charged with nearness of publicans and rioters, said, the physician approacheth the sick, rather than the whole.

8. Quod quis culpa sua contraxit, majus malum: quod ab externis imponitur, minus malum.

The reason is, because the sting and remorse of the mind accusing itself, doubleth all adversity: contrariwise, the considering and recording inwardly, that a man is clear and free from fault, and just imputation, doth attemper outward calamities. For if the will be in the sense, and in the conscience both, there is a gemination of it; but if evil be in the one, and comfort in the other, it is a kind of compensation: so the poets in tragedies do make the most passionate lamentation, and those that forerun final despair, to be accusing, questioning, and torturing of a man's life.

Seque unum clamat causamque caputque malorum.

And contrariwise, the extremities of worthy persons have been annihilated in the consideration of

their own good deserving. Besides, when the evit cometh from without, there is left a kind of evaporation of grief, if it come by human injury, either by indignation, and meditating of revenge from ourselves, or by expecting of fore-conceiving, that Nemesis and retribution will take hold of the authors of our hurt; or if it be by fortune or accident, yet there is left a kind of expostulation against the divine powers.

Atque deos atque astra vocat crudelia mater.

But where the evil is derived from a man's own fault, there all strikes deadly inwards, and suffocateth. The reprehension of this colour is, first in respect of hope, for reformation of our faults is in nostra potestate; but amendment of our fortune simply, is not. Therefore Demosthenes, in many of his orations, saith thus to the people of Athens: That which having regard to the time past, is the worse point and circumstance of all the rest; that as to the time to come is the best: what is that? Even this, that by your sloth, irresolution and misgovernment, your affairs are grown to this declination and decay. For had you used and ordered your means and forces to the best, and done your parts every way to the full, and notwithstanding your matters should have gone backward in this manner as they do, there had been no hope left of recovery or reparation; but since it hath been only

by our own errors, &c. So Epictetus in his degrees saith, the worst state of man is to accuse external things, better than that to accuse a man's self, and best of all to accuse neither.

Another reprehension of this colour, is in respect of the well bearing of evils, wherewith a man can charge nobody but himself, which maketh them the less.

Leve fit quod bene fertur onus.

And therefore many natures that are either extremely proud, and will take no fault to themselves, or else very true, and cleaving to themselves (when they see the blame of any thing that falls out ill must light upon themselves) have no other shift but to bear it out well, and to make the least of it; for as we see when sometimes, a fault is committed, and before it be known who is to blame, much ado is made of it; but after, if it appear to be done by a son, or by a wife, or by a near friend, then it is light made of: so much more when a man must take it upon himself. And therefore it is commonly seen, that women that marry husbands of their own chusing against their friends consents, if they be never so ill used, yet you shall seldom see them complain, but set a good face on it.

9. Quod opera & virtute nostra partum est, majus bonum ; quod ab alieno beneficio vel ah indulgentia fortunæ delatum est, minus bonum.

The reasons are first the future hope, because in the favours of others, or the good winds of fortune, we have no state or certainty; in our endeavours or ability we have. So as when they have purchased us one good fortune, we have them as ready and better edged, and inured to procure ano

ther.

The forms be: you have won this by play, you have not only the water, but you have the receipt, you can make it again if it he lost, &c. Next, because these properties which we enjoy by the benefit of others, carry with them an obligation which seemeth a kind of burden, whereas the other which derive from ourselves are like the freest Patents, absque aliquo inde reddendo; and if they proceed from fortune or providence, yet they seem to touch us secretly with the reverence of the divine powers, whose favours we taste, and therefore work a kind of religious fear and restraint; whereas in the other kind, that comes to pass which the prophet speaketh, lætantur & exultant, immolant plagis suis, & sacrificant reti suo.

Thirdly, Because that which cometh unto us without our own virtue, yielded not that commen