So time imperial eagle does not stay
Till the whole carcase he devour
That's fallen into its power;
As if his generous hunger understood
That he can never want plenty of food,
He only sucks the tasteful blood,
And to fresh game flies cheerfully away;
To kites and meaner birds he leaves the mangled prey.
OF SOLITUDE.
"Nunquam minus solus, quam cum solis," is now become a very vulgar
saying. Every man and almost every boy for these seventeen hundred
years has had it in his mouth. But it was at first spoken by the
excellent Scipio, who was without question a most worthy, most
happy, and the greatest of all mankind. His meaning no doubt was
this: that he found more satisfaction to his mind, and more
improvement of it by solitude than by company; and to show that he
spoke not this loosely or out of vanity, after he had made Rome
mistress of almost the whole world, he retired himself from it by a
voluntary exile, and at a private house in the middle of a wood near
Linternum passed the remainder of his glorious life no less
gloriously. This house Seneca went to see so long after with great
veneration, and, among other things, describes his bath to have been
of so mean a structure, that now, says he, the basest of the people
would despise them, and cry out, "Poor Scipio understood not how to
live.
Pages:
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58