But whatsoeuer was most necessary, I presently gathered and congested into the beginning of the Booke: now if any thing hath escaped me I recollect it. Neyther truely if thou aske me, doe I thinke it much pertinent to the mat∣ter, wheras those things are spoken which gouerned manners, to prosecute the rest, which were inuented, not for the cure of the minde, but for the exercise of the wit. For Demetrius the Cynique (a man in my iudgement great, although he were compared with the greatest) was wont very worthily to say this: That it is more profitable for thee, if thou remember a few precepts of wisdome, and haue them in vse and readinesse, then if thou learnedst many things, and hadst not the ready vse of them. For (saith he) like as that man is a worthy wrestler, not that hath per••itly learned all the trickes and sleights, which hee shall seldome haue occasion to make vse of against his aduersarie: but hee that is well and dilig••ntly exercised in one or two, and intentiuely expecteth and waiteth ••he occasion•• of them (for it skils not how much he knoweth, if he know so much as sufficeth for the victorie) so in this studie, many things delight, but few ouercome. Al∣though thou be ignorant what cause it is, that moueth the Ocean to ebbe and flowe, why euery seauenth yeare impresseth an alteration and signe in our age, why the latitude of a gallery to those that beholde it a farre off, keepeth not his proportion, but gathereth his ends or sides into a narrownesse, so as the farthest spaces of the pillars are ioyned in one: what it is that separateth the concepti∣on of twins, and ioyneth their birth: whether one act of conception be diuided into two distinct creatures, or else they are begotten at seuerall conceptions: why their destinies be different who are borne twinnes together, and their con∣ditions proue so greatly different, whose birth was one, or at least in the same in∣stant. It shall not much hurt thee to ouerslip those things which neyther thou canst know, nor is profitable for thee to know. Truth lieth couered and hid∣den in the depth: neither can we complaine of the malignitie of nature, because the inuention of any thing is not difficult, but onely of that which yeeldeth vs not any fruit, except the onely inuention thereof: whatsoeuer should make vs better or more blessed, nature hath eyther laid open before vs, or neere vnto vs. If the minde hath contemned casualties: if she hath raised her selfe aboue feare, and with greedy hope embraceth not things in••inite, but hath learned to aske riches of her selfe: if she hath cast out from her the feare both of gods and men, and knoweth that there is a very little to be feared from men, neither any thing from god: if contemning all things whereby life is tortured, whilst it is most adorned; he hath attained so much, that it manifestly appeareth vnto him, that death is no matter of any mischiefe, but the end of many: if he haue consecra∣ted his minde vnto vertue, and thinketh that way playnest whither soeuer she inuite him: if he be a sociable creature, and borne to communitie: if he respect∣eth the world as one house, and openeth his conscience to the gods, and liueth alwayes as it were in publique: if more afraid of himselfe then others, being dis∣charged of these tempests, he hath retired himselfe to an assured and quiet re∣pose, he hath consummated a very necessary and profitable science. The rest are but the delights of leasure: for now is it lawfull (the mind once withdrawn into safetie) to expatiate and ariue at these also, which rather yeelde ornament then courage to our mindes.