Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/180

158 And the case is all one as with those that be either timorous or stomach-sick at sea, when they be under sail: for supposing that they shall be better at ease, they go out of a bark into a brigandine, and out of it into a galley: but they find no good thereby, for that they carry about them still choler and a false heart, which are the cause of this their distemperature; even so, eftsoons to change from one course of life unto another, is not the means to deliver the mind from troubles and perturbations, which hinder the repose and quietness thereof. And what be these troubles? even want of experience in affairs; inconsiderate rashness and default of discretion; insufficiency and want of knowledge how to use and accommodate things aright to the present occasions. These be they that molest and vex as well the rich as the poor; these torment and hurt single persons no less than married folk. In regard hereof, some having bidden the court and civil affairs farewell, yet soon after again could not away with a private and quiet life. And for no other cause but this, many make all the means they can to be advanced to high places, and to insinuate themselves into princes' courts; and when they have attained thereto, anon repent them and mislike of that course: But true it is the poet Ion saith:

He that lieth sick is hard to please. He wants advice that should him ease.

For his wife is a trouble unto him; the physician he findeth fault with, and the bed is not to his mind; besides:

A friend comes to visit, he welcomes him nought, And when he departs, unkind he is thought.

But afterwards, as the disease beginneth to break away or decline, and the former temperature of the body to return, health cometh again, which maketh everything pleasant and agreeable; insomuch as he who the day before was ready upon a peevishness of stomach to cast up dainty eggs, fine amydum and marchpain, and the fairest cooked manchet that is, will be content the morrow after, yea, and glad with all his heart to feed savourly and with a good stomach of downright household bread, of some olives or cresses.

Such a contentment and alteration worketh judgment of reason in every kind and course of life. It is reported that King Alexander the Great, hearing Anaxarchus the philosopher discoursing and maintaining this position: That there were worlds innumerable: fell a-weeping: and when his friends and