“It is to show my instability, and that in me there is no security. Thou seest this mast broken all across,—this veil also puffed out by various winds,-beneath one foot, the dolphin amid the waves; below the other foot, the round unstable ball;—I am thus on the sea at a venture. He who has made my portraiture wishes no other thing to be understood than this, that distrust is enclosed beneath me and that I am uncertain of reaching a safe haven;—near am I to danger, from safety ever distant: in perplexity whether to weep or to laugh,—doubtful of good or of evil, as the ship which is upon the seas tossed by the waves, is doubtful in itself where it will be borne. This then is what you see in my true image, hither and thither turned without security.” A description, very similar to this, occurs in the dialogue between Fluellen, a Welsh captain, and “an aunchient lieutenant” Pistol (_Henry V._, act iii. sc. 6, 1. 20, vol. iv. P. 543),— “_ Pist._ Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours: The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well. _Flu._ Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at his hands. _Pist._ Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart. And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate, And giddy Fortune’s furious fickle wheel, That goddess blind,[130] That stands upon the rolling, restless stone— _Flu._ By your patience, Aunchient Pistol, Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that fortune is blind; and she is painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning, and inconstant, and mutability, and variation: and her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls: in good truth, the poet makes a most excellent description of it: Fortune is an excellent moral.” Fortune on the sphere, or “rolling, restless stone,” is also well pictured in the “ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΣ,” editions 1579 and 1584. The whole device is described in the French version,— “L’oiseau de Paradis est de telle nature Qu’en nul endroit qui soit on ne le void iucher, Car il n’a point de pieds, & ne peut se rucher Ailleurs qu’en l’air serein dont il prend nourriture. En cest oiseau se void de Fortune l’image, En laquelle n’y a sinon legreté: Iamais son cours ne fut egal & arresté, Mais tousiours incertain inconstant & volage. Pour la quelle raison on souloit la pourtraire, Tenant vn voile afin d’aller au gré du vent, Des aisles aux costez pour voler bien auant, Ayant les pieds coupez, estant sur vne sphære; Et pourtant cestuy la qui se fie en Fortune, Au lieu de fier au grand Dieu souuerain, Est bien maladuisé, & se monstre aussi vain Que celuy qui bastit sur le dos de Neptune.”