CHAP. I.
THe greater part of men (good friend Paulinus) complaineth of the hard dealing of nature with vs, who hath brought vs forth to liue so short a while, and yet of the time allotted vs, that the moments should so sodainly and swiftly runne a∣way, as wee see they doe: insomuch as besides some few amongst vs, the rest are then most com∣monly bereft of life, when indeed they beginne but newly euen then to liue; nor doth the popu∣lous or foolish people onely lament this euill (so generall as it is counted) but euen many famous men haue likewise thought and lamented in like manner this our misfortune; whence springeth that especiall complaint of the greatest amongst Physitians, that our life is short, and their art very long: where hence also Aristotle takes occasion to quarrell; (although it scarce beseeme so wise a man as hee so to doe) with dame Nature, who (saith he) hath allotted some beasts, some fiue, some ten hundred yeeres, and man who is created to so many weighty purpo∣ses, hath a terme of life prefixed him so much shorter as wee see: whereas in∣deed we haue no scantnesse or scarsity of life, but wee rather loose much of our life; for long enough and large enough is life allowed vs, were it spent in grea∣test matters, or were it all spent in good matters; but when wee haue by riot and negligence once lost it, when it is once spent and gone, and we cannot shew any good wee spent it in, at length need driuing vs to make an end thereof; wee see that now it is spent, which wee did not feele to spend, before in deed it was very well nigh wholy spent: so that wee had not giuen vs so short a life, as wee will make it, but such we made it as it is; nor had we giuen vs so little life, but so prodigall and lauish wee are. Euen as a Princes ample Patrimony, if it come in Hucksters hands, goeth away in a moment, which if it were the hundreth parte thereof, and were well husbanded, would yet by good vsage, encrease rather then proue but scarce, euen so our age if it bee well employed, will proue very faire and long enough.