sculae quoque prolis opportunitate praedicauit? Praetereo, libet enim
praeterire communia, sumptas in adulescentia negatas senibus dignitates; ad
singularem felicitatis tuae cumulum uenire delectat. Si quis rerum
mortalium fructus ullum beatitudinis pondus habet, poteritne illius memoria
lucis quantalibet ingruentium malorum mole deleri, cum duos pariter
consules liberos tuos domo prouehi sub frequentia patrum, sub plebis
alacritate uidisti, cum eisdem in curia curules insidentibus tu regiae
laudis orator ingenii gloriam facundiaeque meruisti, cum in circo duorum
medius consulum circumfusae multitudinis expectationem triumphali
largitione satiasti? Dedisti ut opinor uerba fortunae, dum te illa
demulcet, dum te ut delicias suas fouet. Munus quod nulli umquam priuato
commodauerat abstulisti. Visne igitur cum fortuna calculum ponere? Nunc te
primum liuenti oculo praestrinxit. Si numerum modumque laetorum tristiumue
consideres, adhuc te felicem negare non possis. Quod si idcirco te
fortunatum esse non aestimas, quoniam quae tunc laeta uidebantur abierunt,
non est quod te miserum putes, quoniam quae nunc creduntur maesta
praetereunt. An tu in hanc uitae scaenam nunc primum subitus hospesque
uenisti? Vllamne humanis rebus inesse constantiam reris, cum ipsum saepe
hominem uelox hora dissoluat? Nam etsi rara est fortuitis manendi fides,
ultimus tamen uitae dies mors quaedam fortunae est etiam manentis. Quid
igitur referre putas, tune illam moriendo deseras an te illa fugiendo?

III.

Wherefore if fortune should plead with thee thus in her own defence,
doubtless thou wouldst not have a word to answer her. But if there be
anything which thou canst allege in thy own defence, thou must utter it.
We will give thee full liberty to speak." Then I said: "These things
make a fair show and, being set out with pleasant rhetoric and music,
delight only so long as they are heard. But those which are miserable
have a deeper feeling of their miseries. Therefore, when the sound of
these things is past, hidden sorrow oppresseth the mind." "It is so
indeed," quoth she, "for these be not the remedies of thy disease, but
certain fomentations to assuage thy grief, which as yet resisteth all
cure. But when it shall be time, I will apply that which shall pierce to
the quick. And yet there is no cause why thou shouldst think thyself
miserable. Hast thou forgotten how many ways, and in what degree thou
art happy?