But for all this, you must not make y^e lesse reconing of these precepts. For, A man may well teache another the way: although he have gone out of the way himself. And, peradventure, they that have lost their wayes, do better remember the hard wayes to find: then they that never went a misse. And, if in mine infancie, when minds be tender and pliable, like a young twigge, they that had y^e charge & governement of me, had had the skill to smoothe my manners, (perhaps of Nature somwhat hard and rude) and would have polished and wrought them fine: peradventure I should have beene such A one, as I travaile to make thee Nowe, whome I love no lesse then if thou were my sonne. For albeit, the power of Nature be greate: yet is she many times Maistered and corrected by custome: But, we must in time begin to encounter and beate her downe, before she get to muche strength and hardines. But most men will not doe so: but rather yealding to their appetite without any striving, following it where so ever it leades them, thinke they must submitte themselves to Nature: As though Reason were not a naturall thing in man. But, Reason hath (as a Lady and Mistris) power to chaunge olde customes, and to helpe & hold up Nature, when she doth at any time decay and fall. But very seldome we harken unto her. And y^t for y^e moste parte, maketh us like unto them whome god hath not endued w^t Reason: I mean brute beastes, in whome notwithstanding, something yet worketh: not their owne Reasons (for they have none of them selves) but ours: as in horses you see it: which by nature would be ever wilde, but y^t their rider makes them tame, and withal, after a sorte, redy & very well paced. For many of them would have a hard trot, but that the rider makes them have an easier pace. And some he doth teache to stand still, to galopp, to treade the ringe, and passe the carreere: And they learne to doe it all well you see. Then, if the horse, the dog, y^e hauke, & many other beastes besides, more wilde then these, be guided and ruled by Reason, and learne that which their owne Nature cannot attaine, but rather repugneth: and become after a sorte cunning and skilfull, so farre as their kinde doth beare it, not by Nature, but by custome & use: how muche then may we thinke wee should excell them, by the precepts and rules of our Reason, if wee tooke any heede unto it. But, The Senses desire & covet present delightes, what soever they be: and can abide no paines, but puts them of. And by this meanes, they also shake of Reason, and thinke her unpleasant, forasmuche as she sets before them, not pleasure, many times, hurtfull: but goodnes and vertue, ever painfull, sower and unsavoury in taste. For, while we live according to the Sense, wee are like to the selly sickman, to whom al cates never so deinty & sweete, seeme untoothsome: and he chideth still with his Cater and Cooke, in whome there is no fault at all for it. For, it is the Nature of his disease, and the Extremitie