ich is full
of anxiety, and the enjoying of them breeds repentance? How many
diseases, how intolerable griefs bring they forth in the bodies of their
possessors, as it were the fruits of their own wickedness! I know not
what sweetness their beginnings have, but whosoever will remember his
lusts shall understand that the end of pleasure is sadness. Which if it
be able to cause happiness, there is no reason why beasts should not be
thought blessed, whose whole intention is bent to supply their corporal
wants. That pleasure which proceedeth from wife and children should be
most honest; but it was too naturally spoken, that some tormentor
invented children, whose condition, whatsoever it be, how biting it is,
I need not tell thee, who hast had experience heretofore, and art not
now free from care. In which I approve the opinion of Euripides, who
said that they which had no children are happy by being
unfortunate.[129]

[129] Cf. _Androm._ 420.

VII.

Habet hoc uoluptas omnis,
Stimulis agit fruentes
Apiumque par uolantum
Vbi grata mella fudit,
Fugit et nimis tenaci 5
Ferit icta corda morsu.

VII.

All pleasure hath this property,
She woundeth those who have her most.
And, like unto the angry bee
Who hath her pleasant honey lost,
She flies away with nimble wing
And in our hearts doth leave her sting.

VIII.

Nihil igitur dubium est quin hae ad beatitudinem uiae deuia quaedam sint
nec perducere quemquam eo ualeant ad quod se perducturas esse promittunt.
Quantis uero implicitae malis sint, breuissime monstrabo. Quid enim?
Pecuniamne congregare conaberis? Sed eripies habenti. Dignitatibus fulgere
uelis? Danti supplicabis et qui praeire ceteros honore cupis, poscendi
humilitate uilesces. Potentiamne desideras? Subiectorum insidiis obnoxius
periculis subiacebis. Gloriam petas? Sed per aspera quaeque distractus
securus esse desistis. Voluptariam uitam degas? Sed quis non spernat atque
abiciat uilissimae fragilissimaeque rei corporis seruum? Iam uero qui bona
prae se corporis ferunt, quam exigua, quam fragili possessione nituntur!
Num enim elephantos mole, tauros robore superare poteritis, num tigres
uelocitate praeibitis? Respicite caeli spatium, firmitudinem, celeritatem
et aliquando desinite uilia mirari. Quod quidem caelum non his potius est
quam sua qua regitur ratione mirandum. Formae uero nitor ut