Catholic, that holds nothing
more steadfastly than supererogation in all that he undertakes, for he
undertakes nothing but what he overdoes. He is insatiable in all his
actions and, like a covetous person, never knows when he has done
enough until he has spoiled all by doing too much. He is his own
antagonist, and is never satisfied until he has outdone himself as well
as that which he proposed, for he loves to be better than his word
(though it always falls out worse) and deceive the world the wrong way.
He believes the mean to be but a mean thing, and therefore always runs
into extremities as the more excellent, great, and transcendent. He
delights to exceed in all his attempts, for he finds that a goose that
has three legs is more remarkable than a hundred that have but two
apiece, and has a greater number of followers; and that all monsters are
more visited and applied to than other creatures that Nature has made
perfect in their kind. He believes he can never bestow too much pains
upon anything; for his industry is his own and costs him nothing; and if
it miscarry he loses nothing, for he has as much as it was worth. He is
like a foolish musician that sets his instrument so high that he breaks
his strings for want of understanding the right pitch of it, or an
archer that breaks his with overbending; and all he does is forced, like
one that sings above the reach of his voice.

THE RASH MAN

Has a fever in his brain, and therefore is rightly said to be
hot-headed. His reason and his actions run downhill, borne headlong by
his unstaid will. He has not patience to consider, and perhaps it would
not be the better for him if he had; for he is so possessed with the
first apprehension of anything, that whatsoever comes after loses the
race and is prejudged. All his actions, like sins, lead him perpetually
to repentance, and from thence to the place from whence they came, to
make more work for repentance; for though he be corrected never so
often, he is never amended, nor will his haste give him time to call to
mind where it made him stumble before; for he is always upon full speed,
and the quickness of his motions takes away and dazzles the eyes of his
understanding. All his designs are like diseases, with which he is taken
suddenly before he is aware, and whatsoever he does is extempore,
without premeditation; for he believes a sudden life to be the best of
all, as some do a sudden death. He pursues things as men do