Page:Essays - Abraham Cowley (1886).djvu/174

 who was so cautious as not to fly undecently from his enemies, and therefore I prefer Horace's advice before yours. Sapere aude; incipe. Begin: the getting out of doors is the greatest part of the journey. Varro teaches us that Latin proverb, Portara itineri longissimam esse. But to return to Horace, Sapere aude; ''Incipe. Vivendi qui recte prorogat horam'' Rusticus expectat dum labitur amnis; at ille Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis ævum.

Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise; He who defers the work from day to day, Does on a river's bank expecting stay, Till the whole stream which stopped him should be gone, That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on.

Cæsar (the man of expedition above all others) was so far from this folly, that whensoever in a journey he was to cross any river, he never went one foot out of his way for a bridge, or a ford, or a