h. Wee are, wee thinke, come out of the contagious citie,
but wee are not aduised that we haue sucked the bad aire, that
wee carry the plague with vs, that we so participate with it,
that through rockes, through desarts, through mountaines, it
euer accompanieth vs. Hauing auoyded the contagion of others,
yet we haue it in our selues. We haue withdrawen vs out of men:
but not withdrawen man out of vs. The tempestuous sea
torments vs: we are grieued at the heart, and desirous to vomit:
and to be discharged thereof, we remoue out of one ship into
another, from a greater to a lesse: we promise our selues rest
in vaine: they being always the same winds that blow, the same
waues that swel, the same humors that are stirred. To al no
other port, no other mean of tranquilitie but only death. We
were sicke in a chamber neere the street, or neere the market:
we caused our selues to be carried into some backer closet,
where the noise was not so great. But though there the noise was
lesse: yet was the feauer there neuerthelesse: and thereby lost
nothing of his heate. Change bedde, chamber, house, country,
againe and againe: we shall euery where finde the same vnrest,
because euery where we finde our selues: and seek not so much to
be others, as to be other wheres. We folow solitarines, to flie
carefulnes. We retire vs (so say we) from the wicked: but cary
with vs our auarice, our ambition, our riotousnes, all our
corrupt affecti[on]s: which breed in vs 1000. remorses, & 1000.
times each day bring to our remembrance the garlike & onions of
_Egipt_. Daily they passe the Ferry with vs: so that both on
this side, and beyond the water, we are in continual combat. Now
could we cassere this c[om]pany, which eats and gnaws our mind,
doubtles we should be at rest, not in solitarines onely, but
euen in the thicket of men. For the life of m[an] vpon earth is but
a continual warfare. Are we deliuered from externall practizes?
Wee are to take heed of internall espials. Are the Greekes gone
away? We haue a _Sinon_ within, that wil betray them the place.
Wee must euer be waking, hauing an eie to the watch, and weapons
in our hands, if wee will not euery houre be surprised, & giuen
vp to the wil of our enimies. And how at last can we escape? Not
by the woodes, by the riuers, nor by the mountaines: not by
throwing our selues into a presse, nor by thrusting our selues
into a hole. One only meane there is, which is death: which in
ende seperating ou