However, by the failing of the forces which I had expected, I did
not quit the design which I had resolved on; I cast myself into it A
corps perdu, without making capitulations or taking counsel of
fortune. But God laughs at a man who says to his soul, "Take thy
ease": I met presently not only with many little encumbrances and
impediments, but with so much sickness (a new misfortune to me) as
would have spoiled the happiness of an emperor as well as mine. Yet
I do neither repent nor alter my course. Non ego perfidum dixi
sacramentum. Nothing shall separate me from a mistress which I have
loved so long, and have now at last married, though she neither has
brought me a rich portion, nor lived yet so quietly with me as I
hoped from her.
- Nec vos, dulcissima mundi
Nomina, vos Musae, libertas, otia, libri,
Hortique sylvesque anima remanente relinquam.
Nor by me e'er shall you,
You of all names the sweetest, and the best,
You Muses, books, and liberty, and rest;
You gardens, fields, and woods forsaken be,
As long as life itself forsakes not me.
But this is a very petty ejaculation. Because I have concluded all
the other chapters with a copy of verses, I will maintain the humour
to the last.
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