of obliging him, which is not to add anything to his estate, but to take something from his desires. The sum of this is, that for the uncertain hopes of some conveniences we ought not to defer the execution of a work that is necessary, especially when the use of those things which we would stay for may otherwise be supplied, but the loss of time never recovered. Nay, further yet, though we were sure to obtain all that we had a mind to, though we were sure of getting never so much by continuing the game, yet when the light of life is so near going out, and ought to be so precious, _Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle_, the play is not worth the expense of the candle. After having been long tossed in a tempest, if our masts be standing, and we have still sail and tackling enough to carry us to our port, it is no matter for the want of streamers and topgallants; _utere velis totes pande sinus_. A gentleman in our late civil wars, when his quarters were beaten up by the enemy, was taken prisoner and lost his life afterwards, only by staying to put on a band and adjust his periwig. He would escape like a person of quality, or not at all, and died the noble martyr of ceremony and gentility. I think your counsel of _festina lente_ is as ill to a man who is flying from the world, as it would have been to that unfortunate well-bred gentleman, who was so cautious as not to fly undecently from his enemies, and therefore I prefer Horace’s advice before yours. —_Sapere ande_; _incipe_. Begin: the getting out of doors is the greatest part of the journey. Varro teaches us that Latin proverb, _Portam itineri longissimam esse_. But to return to Horace, —_Sapere aude_; _Incipe_. _Virendi qui recte prorogat horam_ _Rusticus expectat dum labitur amnis_; _at ille_ _Labitur_, _et labetur is omne volubilis ævum_. Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise; He who defers the work from day to day, Does on a river’s bank expecting stay, Till the whole stream which stopped him should be gone, That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on. Cæsar (the man of expedition above all others) was so far from this folly, that whensoever in a journey he was to cross any river, he never went one foot out of his way for a bridge, or a ford, or a ferry; but flung himself into it immediately, and swam over; and this is the course we ought to imitate if we meet with any stops in our way to happiness. Stay till the waters are low, stay till some boats come by to transport you, stay till a bridge be built for you; you had even as good stay till the river be quite past. Persius (who, you used to say, you do not know whether he be a good poet or no, because you cannot understand him, and whom, therefore, I say, I know to be not a good poet) has an odd expression of these procrastinations, which, methinks, is full of fancy. _Jam cras hesterum consumpsimus_, _ecce aliud cras egerit hos annos_.