Page:A Discourse of Constancy in Two Books Chiefly containing Consolations Against Publick Evils.pdf/299

278 evils were not; and where that place was. Assign me any one Age, any one Nation, without a remarkable Tyranny in it; and (for I'le run the hazzard) I will then confess, that we are the most wretched of all that are miserable Why do you not reply? I see that old Sarcasme is true; all the good Princes may be registred in a Ring. For it is natural to Man to use authority insolently, and hardly to keep a mean in that which it self is above it. Even we our selves who complain of Tyranny, do yet carry the seeds of it inclosed in our bosoms: Nor is there a Will wanting in most of us to discover them, but the power. A Serpent when he is benummed with cold, hath poyson within him, though he do not exert it; 'Tis the same in us, whom only weakness keeps innocent, and a kind of Winter in our Fortunes. Give but power, give means, and I fear that the most of those that accuse would transcend the example of Rh