Axiochus

sorrow and tears. Let us else survey the life of mariners and seafaring men, who make a hole through so many dangers, and who, as Bias one of the Seven Sages of Greece said, are neither in the number of the living nor yet of the dead. For man, being born to abide upon the earth, is as it were a creature of a double kind, thrusting himself into the main sea and wholly putting his life into the hands of fortune. But the life of husbandmen, some will say, is pleasant, and so indeed it is: but have they not a continual rankling gall, ever breeding new cause of grief and disquiet, sometimes by reason of drought, sometimes because of rain, otherwise for scorching, oft through blasting, which parches the untimely ear, oftentimes because of importunate heat or unmeasurable cold, miserably weeping and complaining. But above all, that honourable state of government and principality (for I let pass many other things and wrap them up in silence), through how many dangers is it tossed and turmoiled? For if at any time it have any cause of joy, it is like unto a blown blister or a swelling sore, soon up and sooner down: oftentimes suffering a foul repulse, which seemeth a thousand times worse than death itself. For who at any time can be blessed that hangeth upon the wavering will of the witless many? And albeit the magistrate deserves favour and praise, yet is he but a mocking stock and scoff of the com-