, hardly should we finde in all the world
one, how vnhappy or wretched soeuer, that would euer passe.
Another will say, had I liued till 50. or 60. yeares, I should
haue bin contented: I should not haue cared to liue longer: but
to dye so yong is no reason, I should haue knowen the world
before I had left it. Simple soule! in this world there is
neither young nor olde. The longest age in comparison of all
that is past, or all that is to come, is nothing: and when thou
hast liued to the age thou now desirest, all the past will be
nothing: thou wilt still gape, for that is to come. The past
will yeeld thee but sorrowe, the future but expectation, the
present no contentment. As ready thou wilt then be to redemaund
longer respite, as before. Thou fliest thy creditor from moneth
to moneth, and time to time, as readie to pay the last daye, as
the first: thou seekest but to be acquitted. Thou hast tasted
all which the world esteemeth pleasures: not one of them is new
vnto thee. By drinking oftener, thou shalt be neuer awhit the
more satisfyed: for the body thou cariest, like the bored paile
of _Danaus_ daughters, will neuer be full. Thou mayst sooner
weare it out, then weary thy selfe with vsing, or rather
abusing it. Thou crauest long life to cast it away, to spend it
on worthles delights, to mispend it on vanities. Thou art
couetous in desiring, and prodigall in spending. Say not thou
findest fault with the Court, or the Pallace: but that thou
desirest longer to serue the commonwealth, to serue thy
countrie, to serue God. He that set thee on worke knowes vntill
what day, and what houre, thou shouldest be at it: he well
knowes how to direct his worke. Should he leaue thee there
longer, perchance thou wouldest marre all. But if he will pay
thee liberally for thy labour, as much for halfe a dayes worke,
as for a whole: as much for hauing wrought till noone, as for
hauing borne all the heate of the day: art thou not so much the
more to thanke and prayse him? but if thou examine thine owne
conscience, thou lamentest not the cause of the widdow, and the
orphan, which thou hast left depending in iudgement: not the
dutie of a sonne, of a father, or of a frend, which thou
pretendest thou wouldest performe: not the ambassage for the
common wealth, which thou wert euen ready to vndertake: not the
seruice thou desirest to doe vnto God, who knowes much better
howe to serue himselfe of thee, then thou of thy selfe. It is
thy houses and