Page:A Discourse of Constancy in Two Books Chiefly containing Consolations Against Publick Evils.pdf/122

Chap. 17. you so despise. The truth of which is so very obvious and clear; that amongst all sorts of Men, there is not a more ancient or receiv'd Opinion. And look to how many the light of a Deity, and Providence hath shin'd to well nigh as many hath this of Fate. Insomuch that those very same privative Fires which discovered the knowledge of a God to Men; seem also to have guided Man in the knowledge of this other. Consult Homer that first and wisest of all Poets. There is not any one path wherein that Divine Muse hath so frequently pass'd and repass'd, as this of Fatality: Nor hath the whole Race of the Poets dissented from their Ancestour. Look upon Euripides, Sophocles, Pindar, and our Virgil. Look upon Historians; their common Language is, such a thing fell out by Fate, and Kingdomes owe their Ruine, and establishment to Fate. Look upon Philosophers, Rh