Type of my own deep ills,
Is that which thou for pastime didst entrust
To hostile breast. Oh, careless boy.
Here I would not pretend to understand or determine all that the
enthusiast means. Yet there is well expressed the strange condition of a
soul cast down by the knowledge of the difficulty of the operation, the
amount of the labour, the vastness of the work on one side, and on the
other the ignorance, want of knowledge of the way, weakness of nerves
and peril of death. He has no knowledge suitable to the business, he
does not know where and how to turn, no place of flight or refuge
presents itself; and he sees that, from every side, the waves threaten,
with frightful, fatal impetus. Ignoranti portum, nullus suus ventus est.
Behold him, who has committed himself indeed to fortuitous things, and
has brought upon himself trouble, prison, ruin, and drowning. See how
fortune deludes us, and that which we put carefully into her hands, she
either breaks or lets it fall from her hands, or causes it to be removed
by the violence of another, or suffocates and poisons, or taints with
suspicion, fear, and jealousy to the great hurt and ruin of the
possessor. Fortunae au ulla putatis dona carcere dolis? For strength
which cannot give proof of itself is dissipated; magnanimity, which
cannot prevail, is naught, and vain is study without results; he sees
the effects of the fear of evil, which is worse than evil itself.
Pages:
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55