Some, thinke this _Emblem_ serveth to expresse No more, but onely _Womens_ ficklenesse; And, they will most desire to have it so, Who, like those best, that most inconstant grow. Although my _Fortunes_ were, in some things, bad, I never in my life, experience had Of an _inconstant woman_: Wherefore, then, Should I condemne the _Females_, more than men? I heare some talke, that _Women_ fickle be: And so I thinke; and so I know are wee. And (being put together) say I dare, That, they and wee, in equall manner, share A _giddinesse_, and _ficklenesse_ of minde, More wavering, than a _Feather_, or the _Winde_. The _Woman_, heere, is plac’d, to typifie A minde distracted with much levitie: Not, that the womans _Wav’rings_ are the more; But, for this cause: Most _Vices_, heretofore, And _Vertues_ too, our _Ancestors_ did render, By words declined in the _female-gender_. The _winged Ball_, (whose tottering Foundation, Augments the causes of our _variation_) Meanes, here, those uselesse, and vaine _temp’rall things_, That come and goe, with never-staying _wings_; And, which (if thereupon our hearts we set) Make _Men_ and _Women_, the _Vertigo_ get. Hereafter, then, let neither _Sexe_ accuse Each other; but, their best endeavours use, To cure this _Maladie_ in one another, By living well, and lovingly together. _Hee that enjoyes a =patient Minde=, Can =Pleasures= in =Afflictions= finde._ [Illustration: GAUDET PATIENTIA DURIS. ILLVSTR. XXIV. _Book. 4_]