PAGE 26
Of Vanity
by
As to the rest, most of the accidental company a man falls into upon the road beget him more trouble than pleasure; I waive them as much as I civilly can, especially now that age seems in some sort to privilege and sequester me from the common forms. You suffer for others or others suffer for you; both of them inconveniences of importance enough, but the latter appears to me the greater. ‘Tis a rare fortune, but of inestimable solace; to have a worthy man, one of a sound judgment and of manners conformable to your own, who takes a delight to bear you company. I have been at an infinite loss for such upon my travels. But such a companion should be chosen and acquired from your first setting out. There can be no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind, that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to communicate it to:
“Si cum hac exceptione detur sapientia,
ut illam inclusam teneam, nec enuntiem, rejiciam.”
[“If wisdom be conferred with this reservation, that I must keep it
to myself, and not communicate it to others, I would none of it.”
–Seneca, Ep., 6.]
This other has strained it one note higher:
“Si contigerit ea vita sapienti, ut ommum rerum afliuentibus copiis,
quamvis omnia, quae cognitione digna sunt, summo otio secum ipse
consideret et contempletur, tamen, si solitudo tanta sit, ut hominem
videre non possit, excedat a vita.”
[“If such a condition of life should happen to a wise man, that in
the greatest plenty of all conveniences he might, at the most
undisturbed leisure, consider and contemplate all things worth the
knowing, yet if his solitude be such that he must not see a man,
let him depart from life.”–Cicero, De Offic., i. 43.]
Architas pleases me when he says, “that it would be unpleasant, even in heaven itself, to wander in those great and divine celestial bodies without a companion. But yet ’tis much better to be alone than in foolish and troublesome company. Aristippus loved to live as a stranger in all places:
“Me si fata meis paterentur ducere vitam
Auspiciis,”
[“If the fates would let me live in my own way.”–AEneid, iv. 340.]
I should choose to pass away the greatest part of my life on horseback:
“Visere gestiens,
Qua pane debacchentur ignes,
Qua nebula, pluviique rores.”
[“Visit the regions where the sun burns, where are the thick
rain-clouds and the frosts.”–Horace, Od., iii. 3, 54.]
“Have you not more easy diversions at home? What do you there want? Is not your house situated in a sweet and healthful air, sufficiently furnished, and more than sufficiently large? Has not the royal majesty been more than once there entertained with all its train? Are there not more below your family in good ease than there are above it in eminence? Is there any local, extraordinary, indigestible thought that afflicts you?”
“Qua to nunc coquat, et vexet sub pectore fixa.”
[“That may now worry you, and vex, fixed in your breast.”
–Cicero, De Senect, c. 1, Ex Ennio.]
“Where do you think to live without disturbance?”
“Nunquam simpliciter Fortuna indulget.”
[“Fortune is never simply complaisant (unmixed).”
–Quintus Curtius, iv. 14]
You see, then, it is only you that trouble yourself; you will everywhere follow yourself, and everywhere complain; for there is no satisfaction here below, but either for brutish or for divine souls. He who, on so just an occasion, has no contentment, where will he think to find it? How many thousands of men terminate their wishes in such a condition as yours? Do but reform yourself; for that is wholly in your own power! whereas you have no other right but patience towards fortune: