Moral Philosophy.
Ethica.
[Illustration]
This _Life_ is a _way_,
or a _place divided into two ways_,
like
_Pythagoras’s Letter_ Y.
_Vita_ hæc est _via_,
sive _Bivium_,
simile
Litteræ _Pithagoricæ_ Y.
broad, 1.
on the left hand track;
narrow, 2. on the right;
latum, 1.
sinistro tramite
angustum, 2. dextro;
that belongs to _Vice_, 3.
this to _Vertue_, 4.
ille _Vitii_, 3.
est his _Virtutis_, 4.
Mind, Young Man, 5.
imitate _Hercules_:
leave the left hand way,
turn from Vice;
Adverte juvenis, 5.
imitare _Herculem_;
linque sinistram,
aversare Vitium;
the _Entrance_, 6. is fair,
but the _End_, 7.
is ugly and steep down.
_Aditus_ speciosus, 6.
sed _Exitus_, 7.
turpis & præceps.
Go on the right hand,
though it be thorny, 8.
no way is unpassible
to vertue; follow whither
vertue leadeth
Dextera ingredere,
utut spinosa, 8.
nulla via invia
virtuti; sequere quâ
viâ ducit virtus
through _narrow places_
to _stately palaces_,
to the _Tower of honour_, 9.
per _angusta_,
ad _augusta_,
ad _Arcem honoris_, 9.
Keep the middle
and streight _path_,
and thou shalt go very safe.
Tene medium
& rectum _tramitem_;
ibis tutissimus.
Take heed thou do not go
too much on the right hand, 10.
Cave excedas
ad dextram, 10.
Bridle in, 12.
the wild Horse, 11. of Affection,
lest thou fall down headlong.
Compesce freno, 12.
equum ferocem, 11. Affectûs
ne præceps fias.
See thou dost not
go amiss on the left hand, 13.
in an ass-like sluggishness, 14.
Cave
deficias ad sinistram, 13.
segnitie asininâ, 14.
but go onwards constantly,
persevere to the end,
and thou shalt be crown’d, 15.
sed progredere constanter
pertende ad finem,
& coronaberis, 15.