CHAP. XI.
BVt whence commeth it that thou thus forgettest thine owne estate,* 1.1 and the condition of the whole world. Thou art borne mortall, and hast brought forth mortall children; thou has•• a body enclined to corruption and distraction, hauing beene bea∣ten with so many accidents and sicknesses; didst thou hope in so fraile and weak a matter that thou crauedst some thing solide and eternall. Thy sonne is departed, that is, hee hath finished his course, to which end they that are more happy then thy sonne doe flocke and hasten. All these that wrangle at the Palace, that fill the Theaters, that pray in the Temp••••s, march th••ther but in a different place. Euen those things which you r••uerence•• and those things which you despise, one death shall make equall•• The same is comman∣ded thee by the inscription of the Oracle of Ap••llo•• Know thy selfe•• What is ma•••• a broken vessell, a thing moore fraile then may bee imagined; there need•• no great tempest to breake thee, wheresoeuer thou art cast thou art shattered. What is man? a weake, fraile, and naked body•• disarmed by nature, that ne••∣deth an others helpe, abandoned to all the outrages of fortu•••• in the greatest vigor of his age, exposed for a pray to wilde beasts•• subiect to bee spoyled by the next that meeteth him, framed of those thinges that haue no firmity or continuance, faire in appearance, and in outward lineame••••, but neither able to endure either colde, heate or trauell. Tending through his one and idlenes, to consume himselfe, fearing that which nourisheth him, because that some∣times the want thereof grieueth him, and sometimes the abundance bursteth him. Careful and suspitious of his security, his soule but borrow••d and loathing his abode, a sodaine noyse and vnexpected, and dreadfull t••••••h of the ••ar•• will driue her from him, and alwayes his nourishment corrupt••••h and humbleth him. Doe wee remember that death which is necessary to all m••n, striketh at one man? was not this building raised to th•• ••nd to bee ruined? His odors, sa∣uors, lassitudes, watchings, humors, meates and other things, without which hee could not liue, are the occasion of his death. On what side soeuer hee tur∣neth himselfe, he incontinently espieth the markes of his infi••mity. Euery ayre is not good for him, the change of waters, an vn••••customed breath of winde, and other light and hurtfull causes make him 〈◊〉〈◊〉 that hee is sickly, rotten, broken, and that hee beganne his life with teares: Meane while•• what troubles doth this catife creature cause? how many thoughts ham••ereth hee in his