Page:Essays - Abraham Cowley (1886).djvu/33

 of quick or diligent bellies, and both interpretations may be applied to these men. Metrodorus said, "That he had learnt, to give his belly just thanks for all his pleasures." This by the calumniators of Epicurus his philosophy was objected as one of the most scandalous of all their sayings, which, according to my charitable understanding, may admit a very virtuous sense, which is, that he thanked his own belly for that moderation in the customary appetites of it, which can only give a man liberty and happiness in this world. Let this suffice at present to be spoken of those great trinmviri of the world; the covetous man, who is a mean villain, like Lepidus; the ambitious, who is a brave one, like Octavius; and the voluptuous, who is a loose and debauched one, like Mark Antony. Quisnam igitur Liber? Sapiens, sibi qui Imperiosus.|undefined Not Oenomaus, who commits himself wholly to a charioteer that may break his neck, but the man Who governs his own course with steady hand, Who does himself with sovereign power command;