But such is our folly, that we accustom ourselves
rather to live for other men's sakes than our own; and our
dispositions are so prone to upbraidings and to be tainted
with envy, that the grief we conceive at others' prosperity
lessens the joy we ought to take in our own. But to cure
thee of this extravagant emulation, look not upon the outside of these applauded men, which is so gay and brilliant,
but draw the gaudy curtain and carry thy eyes inward, and
thou shalt find most gnawing disquiets to be dissembled
under these false appearances. When the renowned Pittacus, who got him so great a name for his fortitude,
wisdom, and justice, was entertaining his friends at a
noble banquet, and his spouse in an angry humor came
and overturned the table; his guests being extremely disturbed at it, he told them: Every one of you hath his
particular plague, and my wife is mine; and he is very
happy who hath this only.
The pleading lawyer's happy at the bar;
But the scene opening shows a civil war.
For the good man hath a domestic strife,
He's slave to that imperious creature, wife.
Scolding without doors doth to him belong,
But she within them doth claim all the tongue.
Pecked by his female tyrant him I see,
Whilst from this grievance I myself am free.
These are the secret stings which are inseparable from
honor, riches, and dominion, and which are unknown to the
vulgar, because a counterfeit lustre dazzleth their sight.
All pleasant things Atrides doth adorn;
The merry genius smiled when he was born.
1
And they compute this happiness from his great stores of
ammunition, his variety of managed horses, and his battalions of disciplined men. But an inward voice of sorrow
seems to silence all this ostentation with mournful accents:—
Jove in a deep affliction did him plunge.
2
Observe this likewise:—
[p. 152]
Old man, I reverence thy aged head,
Who to a mighty length hast spun thy thread;
Safe from all dangers, to the grave goest down
Ingloriously, because thou art unknown.
3
Such expostulations as these with thyself will serve to
dispel this querulous humor, which makes thee fondly applaud other people's conditions and depreciate thy own.
