only the physician is worth all the rest.

Solus iatros anêr pollôn antaxios andrôn.

And among them too, the more unlearned, impudent, or unadvised he is, the more he is esteemed, even among princes.

Atque in hoc ipso genere, quo quisque indoctior, audacior, incogitantiorque, hoc pluris fit etiam apud torquatos istos Principes.

For physic, especially as it is now professed by most men, is nothing but a branch of flattery, no less than rhetoric.

Atqui Medicina, præsertim ut nunc a compluribus exercetur, nihil aliud est quam assentationis particula, non minus profecto quam rhetorica.

Next them, the second place is given to our law-drivers, if not the first, whose profession, though I say it myself, most men laugh at as the ass of philosophy;

Secundum hos proximus datur locus leguleiis: Et haud scio, an primus, quorum professionem, ne quid ipsa pronunciem, velut asininam philosophi magno consensu ridere solent.

yet there’s scarce any business, either so great or so small, but is managed by these asses.

Sed tamen horum asinorum arbitrio maxima minimaque negotia transiguntur.

These purchase their great lordships, while in the meantime the divine, having run through the whole body of divinity, sits gnawing a radish and is in continual warfare with lice and fleas.

His latifundia crescunt, cum theologus interim excussis totius divinitatis scriniis, lupinum arrodit, cum cimicibus ac pediculis assidue bellum gerens.

As therefore those arts are best that have the nearest affinity with folly, so are they most happy of all others that have least commerce with sciences and follow the guidance of Nature, who is in no wise imperfect, unless perhaps we endeavor to leap over those bounds she has appointed to us.

Ut igitur feliciores sunt artes, quæ maiorem habent cum STULTITIA affinitatem, ita longe felicissimi sunt hi, quibus prorsus licuit ab omnium disciplinarum commercio abstinere, solamque naturam ducem sequi, quæ nulla sui parte manca est, nisi forte mortalis sortis pomeria transilire velimus.

Nature hates all false coloring and is ever best where she is least adulterated with art.

Odit natura fucos, multoque felicius provenit, quod nulla sit arte violatum.

XXXIV

XXXIV

Go to then, don’t you find among the several kinds of living creatures that they thrive best that understand no more than what Nature taught them?

Agedum, annon videtis ex unoquoque reliquorum animantium genere ea felicissime degere, quæ sunt a disciplinis alienissima, nec ullius magisterio nisi naturæ, ducuntur?

What is more prosperous or wonderful than the bee?

Quid apibus aut felicius, aut mirabilius?

And though they have not the same judgment of sense as other bodies have,

At his ne corporis quidem omnes sensus adsunt.

yet wherein has architecture gone beyond their building of houses?

Quid simile in exstruendis ædificiis reperiat architectura?

What philosopher ever founded the like republic?

Quis umquam philosophus similem instituit rempublicam?

Whereas the horse, that comes so near man in understanding and is therefore so familiar with him, is also partaker of his misery.

Rursum equus quoniam humanis sensibus affinis est, et in hominum contubernium demigravit, humanarum item calamitatum est particeps.

For while he thinks it a shame to lose the race, it often happens that he cracks his wind; and in the battle, while he contends for victory, he’s cut down himself, and, together with his rider “lies biting the earth;”

Quippe qui non raro dum vinci pudet in certaminibus ducit ilia, et in bellis dum ambit triumphum, confoditur, simulque cum sessore terram ore momordit.

not to mention those strong bits, sharp spurs, close stables, arms, blows, rider, and briefly, all that slavery he willingly submits to, while, imitating those men of valor, he so eagerly strives to be revenged of the enemy.

Ut ne commemorem interim lupata frena, aculeata calcaria, stabuli carcerem, scuticas, fustes, vincula, sessorem, breviter omnem illam servitutis tragoediam, cui se ultro addixit, dum fortes viros imitatus, impensius hostem ulcisci studet.

Than which how much more were the life of flies or birds to be wished for, who living by the instinct of nature, look no further than the present, if yet man would but let them alone in it.

Quanto optabilior muscarum et avicularum vita ex tempore soloque naturæ sensu degentium, modo per hominum insidias liceat.

And if at anytime they chance to be taken, and being shut up in cages endeavor to imitate our speaking, ’tis strange how they degenerate from their native gaiety.

Quæ si quando caveis inclusæ, adsuescant humanas sonare linguas, mirum quam a nativo illo nitore degenerent.

So much better in every respect are the works of nature than the adulteries of art.

Adeo modis omnibus lætius est, quid natura condidit, quam quod fucavit ars.

In like manner I can never sufficiently praise that Pythagoras in a dunghill cock, who being but one had been yet everything, a philosopher, a man, a woman, a king, a private man, a fish, a horse, a frog, and, I believe too, a sponge; and at last concluded that no creature was more miserable than man, for that all other creatures are content with those bounds that nature set them, only man endeavors to exceed them.

Proinde numquam satis laudarim, gallum illum Pythagoram, qui cum unus omnia fuisset, philosophus, vir, mulier, rex, privatus, piscis, equus, rana, opinor etiam spongia, tamen nullum animal iudicavit calamitosius homine, propterea quod cætera omnia, naturæ finibus essent contenta, solus homo sortis suæ limites egredi conaretur.

XXXV

XXXV

And again, among men he gives the precedency not to the learned or the great, but the fool. Nor had that Gryllus less wit than Ulysses with his many counsels, who chose rather to lie grunting in a hog sty than be exposed with the other to so many hazards.

Rursum inter homines, idiotas multis partibus anteponit doctis ac magnis, et Gryllus ille non paulo plus sapuit, quam polumêtis Odusseus, qui maluerit in hara grunnire, quam cum illo tot miseris obiici casibus.

Nor does Homer, that father of trifles, dissent from me; who not only called all men “wretched and full of calamity,” but often his great pattern of wisdom, Ulysses, “miserable;” Paris, Ajax, and Achilles nowhere.

Ab his mihi non dissentire videtur Homerus nugarum pater, qui cum mortales omnes subinde deilous kai mochthêrous appellat, tum Ulyssem illum suum sapientis exemplar, sæpenumero dustênon vocat, Paridem nusquam, nec Aiacem, nec Achillem.

And why, I pray

Quamobrem id tandem?

but that, like a cunning fellow and one that was his craft’s master, he did nothing without the advice of Pallas?

Nisi quod ille vafer et artifex nihil non Palladis consilio agebat, nimiumque sapiebat, a naturæ ductu quam longissime recedens?

In a word he was too wise, and by that means ran wide of nature. As therefore among men they are least happy that study wisdom, as being in this twice fools, that when they are born men, they should yet so far forget their condition as to affect the life of gods; and after the example of the giants, with their philosophical gimcracks make a war upon nature: so they on the other side seem as little miserable as is possible who come nearest to beasts and never attempt anything beyond man.

Ut igitur inter mortales, ii longissime absunt a felicitate, qui sapientiæ student, nimirum hoc ipso bis stulti, quod homines nati cum sint, tamen obliti conditionis suæ Deorum immortalium vitam affectant, et Gigantum exemplo, disciplinarum machinis, naturæ bellum inferunt, ita quam minime miseri videntur ii, qui ad brutorum ingenium stultitiamque quam proxime accedunt, neque quidquam ultra hominem moliuntur.

Go to then, let’s try how demonstrable this is; not by enthymemes or the imperfect syllogisms of the Stoics, but by plain, downright, and ordinary examples. And now, by the immortal gods!

Age experiamur num hoc quoque non Stoicis enthymematis, sed crasso quopiam exemplo queamus ostendere.

I think nothing more happy than that generation of men we commonly call fools, idiots, lack-wits, and dolts; splendid titles too, as I conceive them.

Ac per Deos immortales, est ne quidquam felicius isto hominum genere, quos vulgo moriones, stultos, fatuos, ac bliteos appellant, pulcerrimis, ut equidem opinor, cognominibus?

I’ll tell you a thing, which at first perhaps may seem foolish and absurd, yet nothing more true.

Rem dicam prima fronte stultam fortassis atque absurdam, sed tamen unam multo verissimam.

And first they are not afraid of death—no small evil, by Jupiter!

Principio vacant mortis metu, non mediocri, per Iovem, malo. Vacant conscientiæ carnificina. Non territantur Manium fabulamentis.

They are not tormented with the conscience of evil acts, not terrified with the fables of ghosts, nor frightened with spirits and goblins. They are not distracted with the fear of evils to come nor the hopes of future good.

Non expavescunt spectris ac lemuribus, non torquentur metu impendentium malorum, non spe futurorum bonorum distenduntur.

In short, they are not disturbed with those thousand of cares to which this life is subject.

In summa, non dilacerantur millibus curarum, quibus hæc vita obnoxia est.

They are neither modest, nor fearful, nor ambitious, nor envious, nor love they any man.

Non pudescunt, non verentur, non ambiunt, non invident, non amant.

And lastly, if they should come nearer even to the very ignorance of brutes, they could not sin, for so hold the divines.

Denique si propius etiam ad brutorum animantium insipientiam, accesserint, ne peccant quidem, auctoribus theologis.

And now tell me, you wise fool, with how many troublesome cares your mind is continually perplexed; heap together all the discommodities of your life, and then you’ll be sensible from how many evils I have delivered my fools.

Hic mihi iam expendas velim, stultissime sapiens, quot undique sollicitudinibus noctes diesque discrucietur animus tuus, congeras in unum acervum universa vitæ tuæ incommoda, atque ita demum intelliges, quantis malis meos fatuos subduxerim.

Add to this that they are not only merry, play, sing, and laugh themselves, but make mirth wherever they come, a special privilege it seems the gods have given them to refresh the pensiveness of life.

Adde huc, quod non solum ipsi perpetuo gaudent, ludunt, cantillant, rident, verum etiam cæteris omnibus quocumque sese verterint, voluptatem, iocum, lusum, risumque adferunt, velut in hoc ipsum a Deorum indulgentia dati, ut humanæ vitæ tristitiam exhilararent.

Whence it is that whereas the world is so differently affected one towards another, that all men indifferently admit them as their companions, desire, feed, cherish, embrace them, take their parts upon all occasions, and permit them without offense to do or say what they like.

Unde fit, ut cum aliis in alios varius sit affectus, hos omnes ex æquo tamquam suos agnoscant, expetant, pascant, foveant, complectantur, succurrant, si quid acciderit: impune permittant, quidquid vel dixerint, vel fecerint.

And so little does everything desire to hurt them, that even the very beasts, by a kind of natural instinct of their innocence no doubt, pass by their injuries.

Adeoque nemo, illis nocere cupit, ut feræ quoque belluæ ab illorum iniuria temperent, sensu quodam innocentiæ naturali.

For of them it may be truly said that they are consecrate to the gods, and therefore and not without cause do men have them in such esteem.

Sunt enim vere sacri Diis, præcipue mihi, ideoque non iniuria hunc honorem omnes illis habent.

XXXVI

XXXVI

Whence is it else that they are in so great request with princes that they can neither eat nor drink, go anywhere, or be an hour without them?

Quid quod summis etiam regibus adeo sunt in delitiis, ut nonnulli sine his neque prandere, nec ingredi, nec omnino vel horam durare possint.

Nay, and in some degree they prefer these fools before their crabbish wise men, whom yet they keep about them for state’s sake.

Neque vero paullo intervallo hos bliteos suis illis tetricis sophis anteponunt, quos tamen ipsos aliquot honoris gratia solent alere.

Nor do I conceive the reason so difficult, or that it should seem strange why they are preferred before the others, for that these wise men speak to princes about nothing but grave, serious matters, and trusting to their own parts and learning do not fear sometimes “to grate their tender ears with smart truths”;

Cur autem ante ponant, nec obscurum arbitror nec mirum videri debet, cum sapientes illi nil nisi triste soleant adferre principibus, suaque doctrina freti, non vereantur aliquoties auriculas teneras mordaci radere vero.

but fools fit them with that they most delight in, as jests, laughter, abuses of other men, wanton pastimes, and the like.

Moriones autem id præstent, quod unum undecumque principes modis omnibus aucupantur, iocos, risus, cachinnos, delitias.

Again, take notice of this no contemptible blessing which Nature has given fools, that they are the only plain, honest men and such as speak truth.

Iam accipite et hanc non aspernandam stultorum dotem, quod soli simpli ces ac veridici sunt.

And what is more commendable than truth?

Quid autem veritate laudatius?

For though that proverb of Alcibiades in Plato attributes truth to drunkards and children, yet the praise of it is particularly mine, even from the testimony of Euripides, among whose other things there is extant that his honorable saying concerning us, “A fool speaks foolish things.”

Quamquam enim Alcibiadeum apud Platonem proverbium, veri tatem vino pueritiæque tribuit, tamen omnis ea laus mihi peculiariter debetur, vel Euripide teste, cuius exstat illud celebre de nobis dictum, môra gar môros legei.

For whatever a fool has in his heart, he both shows it in his looks and expresses it in his discourse;

Fatuus quidquid habet in pectore, id et vultu præ se fert, et ora tione promit.

while the wise men’s are those two tongues which the same Euripides mentions, whereof the one speaks truth, the other what they judge most seasonable for the occasion.

At sapientum sunt duæ illæ linguæ, ut idem meminit Euripides, quarum altera verum dicunt, altera, quæ pro tempore iudicarint opportuna.

These are they ‘that turn black into white’, blow hot and cold with the same breath, and carry a far different meaning in their breast from what they feign with their tongue.

Horum est nigrum in candida vertere, et eodem ex ore frigidum pariter et calidum efflare, longeque aliud conditum habere in pectore, aliud sermone fingere.

Yet in the midst of all their prosperity, princes in this respect seem to me most unfortunate, because, having no one to tell them truth, they are forced to receive flatterers for friends.

Porro in tanta felicitate, tamen hoc nomine principes mihi videntur infelicissimi, quod deest, a quo verum audiant, et assentatores pro amicis ha bere coguntur.

But, someone may say, the ears of princes are strangers to truth, and for this reason they avoid those wise men, because they fear lest someone more frank than the rest should dare to speak to them things rather true than pleasant;

Sed abhorrent a vero principum aures, dixerit aliquis et hac ipsa de causa, sapientes istos fugitant, quod vereantur ne quis forte liberior exsistat, qui vera magis, quam iucunda loqui audeat.

for so the matter is, that they don’t much care for truth.

Ita quidem res habet, invisa regibus veritas.

And yet this is found by experience among my fools, that not only truths but even open reproaches are heard with pleasure; so that the same thing which, if it came from a wise man’s mouth might prove a capital crime, spoken by a fool is received with delight.

Sed tamen hoc ipsum mire in fatuis meis usu venit, ut non vera modo, verum etiam aperta convitia cum voluptate audiantur, adeo ut idem dictum, quod si a sapientis ore proficiscatur, capitale fuerat futurum: a morione profectum, incredibilem voluptatem pariat.

For truth carries with it a certain peculiar power of pleasing, if no accident fall in to give occasion of offense; which faculty the gods have given only to fools.

Habet enim genuinam quamdam delectandi vim veritas, si nihil accedat quod offendat: verum id quidem solis fatuis Dii dederunt.

And for the same reasons is it that women are so earnestly delighted with this kind of men, as being more propense by nature to pleasure and toys.

Iisdem ferme de causis hoc hominum genere mulieres gaudere solent impensius, utpote ad voluptatem et nugas natura propensiores.

And whatsoever they may happen to do with them, although sometimes it be of the most serious, yet they turn it to jest and laughter, as that sex was ever quick-witted, especially to color their own faults.

Proinde quidquid cum huiusmodi factitarint, etiamsi nonnumquam serium nimis, illæ tamen iocum ac lusum interpretantur, ut est ingeniosus, præsertim ad prætexenda commissa sua, sexus ille.

XXXVII

XXXVII

But to return to the happiness of fools, who when they have passed over this life with a great deal of pleasantness and without so much as the least fear or sense of death, they go straight forth into the Elysian field, to recreate their pious and careless souls with such sports as they used here.

Igitur ut ad fatuorum felicitatem redeam, multa cum iucunditate peracta vita, nullo mortis vel metu, vel sensu, recta in campos Elysios demigrant, et illic pias atque otiosas animas lusibus suis delectaturi.

Let’s proceed then, and compare the condition of any of your wise men with that of this fool.

Eamus nunc, et quemvis etiam sapientem cum huius morionis sorte conferamus.

Fancy to me now some example of wisdom you’d set up against him; one that had spent his childhood and youth in learning the sciences and lost the sweetest part of his life in watchings, cares, studies, and for the remaining part of it never so much as tasted the least of pleasure; ever sparing, poor, sad, sour, unjust, and rigorous to himself, and troublesome and hateful to others; broken with paleness, leanness, crassness, sore eyes, and an old age and death contracted before their time

Finge quod huic opponas exemplar sapientiæ, hominem qui totam pueritiam atque adolescentiam in perdiscendis disciplinis contriverit, et suavissimam vitæ partem, perpetuis vigiliis, curis, sudoribus perdiderit, ne in reliqua quidem omni vita vel tantillum voluptatis degustarit, semper parcus, pauper, tristis, tetricus, sibi ipsi iniquus ac durus, aliis gravis et invisus, pallore, macie, valetudine, lippitudine, confectus senio, canitieque multo ante diem contracta, ante diem fugiens e vita.

(though yet, what matter is it, when he die that never lived?);

Quamquam quid refert quando moriatur istiusmodi, qui numquam vixerit?

and such is the picture of this great wise man.

Habetis egregiam illam sapientis imaginem.

XXXVIII

XXXVIII

And here again do those frogs of the Stoics croak at me and say that nothing is more miserable than madness. But folly is the next degree, if not the very thing.

At hic rursus obganniunt mihi, hoi ek tês stôas (!) batrachoi. ‘Nihil’, inquiunt, ‘miserius insania’. Sed insignis stultitia, vel insaniæ proxima est, vel ipsa potius insa nia.

For what else is madness than for a man to be out of his wits?

Quid enim aliud est insanire, quam errare animo?

But to let them see how they are clean out of the way, with the Muses’ good favor we’ll take this syllogism in pieces.

Sed isti tota errant via.

Age, hunc quoque syllogismum dissipemus, Musis bene fortunantibus.

Subtly argued, I must confess, but as Socrates in Plato teaches us how by splitting one Venus and one Cupid to make two of either, in like manner should those logicians have done and distinguished madness from madness, if at least they would be thought to be well in their wits themselves.

Argute quidem isti, verum quemadmodum apud Platonem docet Socrates, ex una Venere secta duas, et ex uno Cupidine dissecto duos faciens, itidem et istos Dialecticos decebat insaniam ab insania distinguere, si modo ipsi sani videri vellent.

For all madness is not miserable,

Neque enim protinus omnis insania calamitosa est.

or Horace had never called his poetical fury a beloved madness; nor Plato placed the raptures of poets, prophets, and lovers among the chiefest blessings of this life; nor that sibyl in Virgil called Aeneas’ travels mad labors.

Alioqui non dixisset Horatius: ‘An me ludit amabilis insania’: Neque Plato poetarum, vatum, et amantium furorem inter præcipua vitæ bona collocasset nec vates illa laborem Aeneæ vocasset insanuma.

But there are two sorts of madness, the one that which the revengeful Furies send privily from hell, as often as they let loose their snakes and put into men’s breasts either the desire of war, or an insatiate thirst after gold, or some dishonest love, or parricide, or incest, or sacrilege, or the like plagues, or when they terrify some guilty soul with the conscience of his crimes;

Verum est duplex insaniæ genus: alterum quod ab inferis diræ ultrices submittunt, quoties immissis anguibus, vel ardorem belli, vel inexplebilem auri sitim, vel dedecorosum ac nefarium amorem, vel parricidium, incestum, sacrilegium, aut aliam id genus pestem aliquam in pectora mortalium invehunt, sive cum nocentem et conscium animum, Furiis ac terriculorum facibus agunt.

the other, but nothing like this, that which comes from me and is of all other things the most desirable;

Est alterum huic longe dissimile, quod videlicet a me proficiscitur, omnium maxime exoptandum.

which happens as often as some pleasing dotage not only clears the mind of its troublesome cares but renders it more jocund.

Id accidit quoties iucundus quidam mentis error simul et anxiis illis curis animum liberat, et multiiuga voluptate delibutum reddit.

And this was that which, as a special blessing of the gods, Cicero, writing to his friend Atticus, wished to himself, that he might be the less sensible of those miseries that then hung over the commonwealth.

Atqui hunc mentis errorem ceu magnum quoddam Deorum munus, ad Atticum scribens, optat Cicero, nimirum, quo tantorum malorum sensu carere posset.

Nor was that Grecian in Horace much wide of it, who was so far made that he would sit by himself whole days in the theatre laughing and clapping his hands, as if he had seen some tragedy acting, whereas in truth there was nothing presented; yet in other things a man well enough, pleasant among his friends, kind to his wife, and so good a master to his servants that if they had broken the seal of his bottle, he would not have run mad for it.

Neque perperam sensit Argivus ille, qui hactenus insaniebat, ut totos dies solus desideret in theatro, ridens, plaudens, gaudens, quod crederet illic miras agi tragoedias, cum nihil omnino ageretur, cum in cæteris vitæ officiis probe sese gereret: ‘iucundus amicis, comis in uxorem, posset qui ignoscere servis. Et signo læsæ non insanire lagenæ’.

But at last, when by the care of his friends and physic he was freed from his distemper and become his own man again, he thus expostulates with them, “Now, by Pollux, my friends, you have rather killed than preserved me in thus forcing me from my pleasure.” By which you see he liked it so well that he lost it against his will.

Hunc ubi cognatorum opera datis pharmacis morbo levasset, sibique iam totus esset redditus, hunc in modum cum amicis expostulans: ‘Pol, me occidistis, amici, non servastis’, ait, ‘cui sic extorta voluptas. Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error’.

And trust me, I think they were the madder of the two, and had the greater need of hellebore, that should offer to look upon so pleasant a madness as an evil to be removed by physic;

Et merito quidem: errabant enim ipsi, atque elleboro magis opus habebant, qui tam felicem ac iucundam insaniam, ceu malum aliquod, existimaquoties foedum illum cornuum cantum audierint, quoties rent potionibus expellendam.

though yet I have not determined whether every distemper of the sense or understanding be to be called madness.

Quamquam illud equidem nondum statui, num quivis sensus, aut mentis error, insa niæ nomine sit appellandus.

For neither he that having weak eyes should take a mule for an ass, nor he that should admire an insipid poem as excellent would be presently thought mad;

Neque enim si cui lippienti mulus asinus esse videatur: aut si quis indoctum carmen veluti doctissimum admiretur, is continuo videbitur insanire.

but he that not only errs in his senses but is deceived also in his judgment, and that too more than ordinary and upon all occasions— he, I must confess, would be thought to come very near to it. As if anyone hearing an ass bray should take it for excellent music, or a beggar conceive himself a king.

Verum si quis non sensu tantum, sed animi iudicio fallatur, idque præter usitatum morem ac perpetuo, is demum insaniæ censebitur affinis esse, veluti si quis quoties asinum audierit rudentem, arbitretur sese miros symphoniscos audire, aut si quis pauperculus, infimi loco natus, Croesum Lydorum regem esse se credat.

And yet this kind of madness, if, as it commonly happens, it turn to pleasure, it brings a great delight not only to them that are possessed with it but to those also that behold it, though perhaps they may not be altogether so mad as the other,

Sed hoc insaniæ genus, si, quemadmodum fere sit, vergat ad voluptatem, non mediocrem delectationem adfert tum iis, qui eo tenentur, tum illis, quibus est hoc animadversum, nec tamen eodem insaniunt.

for the species of this madness is much larger than the people take it to be.

Nam hæc insaniæ species multo latius patet, quam vulgus hominum intelligit.

For one mad man laughs at another, and beget themselves a mutual pleasure.

Sed vicissim insanus insanum ridet, ac mutuam sibi voluptatem invicem ministrant.

Nor does it seldom happen that he that is the more mad, laughs at him that is less mad.

Neque raro fieri videbitis, ut maior insanus, vehementius rideat minorem.

XXXIX

XXXIX

And in this every man is the more happy in how many respects the more he is mad; and if I were judge in the case, he should be ranged in that class of folly that is peculiarly mine, which in truth is so large and universal that I scarce know anyone in all mankind that is wise at all hours, or has not some tang or other of madness.

Verum hoc quisque felicior, quo pluribus desipit modis, Stultitia iudice, modo in eo genere insaniæ maneat, quod nobis est peculiare, quod quidem usque adeo late patet, ut haud sciam, an ex universa mortalium summa quempiam liceat reperire, qui omnibus horis sapiat, quique non aliquo insaniæ genere teneatur.

Quamquam hoc tantum interest qui cucurbitam cum videt, mulierem esse credit, huic insano nomen ponunt, propterea quod per paucis id usu veniat.

Verum ubi quis uxorem suam, quam cum multis habet communem, eam plusquam Penelopen esse deierat, sibique maiorem in modum plaudit, feliciter errans, hunc nullus insanum appellat, propterea quod passim maritis hoc accidere videant.

And to this class do they appertain that slight everything in comparison of hunting and protest they take an unimaginable pleasure to hear the yell of the horns and the yelps of the hounds,

Ad hunc ordinem pertinent et isti, qui præ venatu ferarum omnia contemnunt, atque incredibilem animi voluptatem percipere se prædicant, canum eiulatus.

and I believe could pick somewhat extraordinary out of their very excrement.

Opinor etiam cum excrementa canum odorantur, illis cinnamomum videri.

And then what pleasure they take to see a buck or the like unlaced?

Deinde quæ suavitas, quoties fera lanianda est?

Let ordinary fellows cut up an ox or a wether, ’twere a crime to have this done by anything less than a gentleman!

Tauros et verveces humili plebi laniare licet, feram nisi a generoso secari nefas.

who with his hat off, on his bare knees, and a couteau for that purpose (for every sword or knife is not allowable), with a curious superstition and certain postures, lays open the several parts in their respective order;

Is nudo capite, inflexis genibus, gladio ad id destinato, neque enim quovis idem facere fas est, certis gestibus, certa membra, certo ordine religiose secat.

while they that hem him in admire it with silence, as some new religious ceremony, though perhaps they have seen it a hundred times before.

Miratur interim perinde ut in re nova, circumstans tacita turba, tametsi spectaculum hoc plus millies viderit.

And if any of them chance to get the least piece of it, he presently thinks himself no small gentleman.

Porro cui contigerit e bellua nonnihil gustare, is vero existimat sibi non parum nobilitatis accedere.

In all which they drive at nothing more than to become beasts themselves, while yet they imagine they live the life of princes.

Itaque cum isti assidua ferarum insectatione atque esu, nihil aliud assequantur, nisi ut ipsi propemodum in feras degenerent, tamen interea regiam vitam agere se putant.

And next these may be reckoned those that have such an itch of building; one while changing rounds into squares, and presently again squares into rounds, never knowing either measure or end, till at last, reduced to the utmost poverty, there remains not to them so much as a place where they may lay their head, or wherewith to fill their bellies.

Est his simillimum genus eorum, qui insatiabili ædificandi studio flagrant, nunc rotunda quadratis, nunc, quadrata rotundis permutantes. Neque vero finis ullus, neque modus, donec ad extremam redactis inopiam, nec ubi habitent, nec quid edant, supersit.

And why all this?

Quid tum postea?