Wherefore if fortune should plead with thee thus in her own defence,
doubtless thou wouldst not have a word to answer her. But if there be
anything which thou canst allege in thy own defence, thou must utter it.
We will give thee full liberty to speak." Then I said: "These things
make a fair show and, being set out with pleasant rhetoric and music,
delight only so long as they are heard. But those which are miserable
have a deeper feeling of their miseries. Therefore, when the sound of
these things is past, hidden sorrow oppresseth the mind." "It is so
indeed," quoth she, "for these be not the remedies of thy disease, but
certain fomentations to assuage thy grief, which as yet resisteth all
cure. But when it shall be time, I will apply that which shall pierce to
the quick. And yet there is no cause why thou shouldst think thyself
miserable. Hast thou forgotten how many ways, and in what degree thou
art happy?
I pass over with silence that, having lost thy father, thou wert
provided for by men of the best sort, and, being chosen to have affinity
with the chiefest of the city, thou begannest sooner to be dear unto
them than to be akin, which is the most excellent kind of kindred. Who
esteemed thee not most happy, having so noble a father-in-law, so chaste
a wife, and so noble sons? I say nothing (for I will not speak of
ordinary matters) of the dignities denied to others in their age, and
granted to thee in thy youth. I desire to come to the singular top of
thy felicity. If any fruit of mortal things hath any weight of
happiness, can the remembrance of that light be destroyed with any cloud
of miseries that can overcast thee? When thou sawst thy two sons being
both Consuls together carried from their house, the Senators
accompanying them, and the people rejoicing with them; when, they
sitting in the Senate in their chairs of state, thou making an oration
in the King's praise deservedst the glory of wit and eloquence. When in
public assembly, thou, standing betwixt thy two sons, didst satisfy with
thy triumphant liberality the expectation of the multitudes gathered
together, I suppose thou flatteredst fortune, while she fawned thus upon
thee, as her dearest friend. Thou obtainedst more at her hands than ever
private man had before thee. Wilt thou then reckon with fortune? This is
the first time that ever she frowned upon thee. If thou considerest the
number and measure of thy joyful and sad accidents, thou canst not
choose but think thyself fortunate hitherto; and if thou esteemest not
thyself fortunate because those things which seemed joyful are past,
there is no cause why thou shouldst think thyself miserable, since those
things which thou now takest to be sorrowful do pass. Comest thou now
first as a pilgrim and stranger into the theatre of this life? Supposest
thou to find any constancy in human affairs, since that man himself is
soon gone? For although things subject to fortune seldom keep touch in
staying, yet the end of life is a certain death, even of that fortune
which remaineth. Wherefore, what matter is it whether thou by dying
leavest it, or it forsaketh thee by flying?