part some gullish humour or other, by which they are led; one is an
Epicure, an Atheist, a second a gamester, a third a whoremaster (fit
subjects all for a satirist to work upon);
[751]Hic nuptarum insanit amoribus, hic puerorum.
One burns to madness for the wedded dame;
Unnatural lusts another's heart inflame.
[752]one is mad of hawking, hunting, cocking; another of carousing,
horse-riding, spending; a fourth of building, fighting, &c., Insanit
veteres statuas Damasippus emendo, Damasippus hath an humour of his
own, to be talked of: [753]Heliodorus the Carthaginian another. In a
word, as Scaliger concludes of them all, they are Statuae erectae
stultitiae, the very statutes or pillars of folly. Choose out of all
stories him that hath been most admired, you shall still find, multa ad
laudem, multa ad vituperationem magnifica, as [754]Berosus of
Semiramis; omnes mortales militia triumphis, divitiis, &c., tum et
luxu, caede, caeterisque vitiis antecessit, as she had some good, so
had she many bad parts.
Alexander, a worthy man, but furious in his anger, overtaken in drink:
Caesar and Scipio valiant and wise, but vainglorious, ambitious:
Vespasian a worthy prince, but covetous: [755]Hannibal, as he had
mighty virtues, so had he many vices; unam virtutem mille vitia
comitantur, as Machiavel of Cosmo de Medici, he had two distinct
persons in him. I will determine of them all, they are like these
double or turning pictures; stand before which you see a fair maid, on
the one side an ape, on the other an owl; look upon them at the first
sight, all is well, but farther examine, you shall find them wise on
the one side, and fools on the other; in some few things praiseworthy,
in the rest incomparably faulty. I will say nothing of their diseases,
emulations, discontents, wants, and such miseries: let poverty plead
the rest in Aristophanes' Plutus.
Covetous men, amongst others, are most mad, [756]they have all the
symptoms of melancholy, fear, sadness, suspicion, &c., as shall be
proved in its proper place,
Danda est Hellebori multo pars maxima avaris.
Misers make Anticyra their own;
Its hellebore reserved for them alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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