The treasure of tranquillity. Or A manuall of morall discourses tending to the tranquillity of minde. Translated out of French by I.M. Master of Arts.

DISC. 5.

How a man must order and rule his life.

IT is expedient, in my conceit, that a man hold and keepe a certaine staied and setled maner of liuing, and that he varie not not with euery winde. Ye shall see many a one much subiect to this vice of changing their man∣ner of liuing from day to day; so that they cannot ground or settle themselues vpon any thing whatsoeuer. Wherein they doe resemble such folks as haue euer beene accustomed to bee at sea, who as soone as they beginne to saile, runne out of one vessell in∣to another, leauing the bigger to put themselues into a lesser, and by & by leauing the lesser to returne to the bigger againe.

And thus they continue in chan∣ging, vntill at what time they know cleerely that nothing can fit them, because that whither∣soeuer they goe, their queasie stomackes doth keep them com∣pany, and consequently, their vomiting disease.

Likewise those that bring their passions with them vnto their affaires, do seeke incessantly af∣ter a new manner of liuing, and neuer accomplish what they haue once begun. All things go against their stomacke, all things displease them, whether to bee imployed, or to be idle, to serue or to command, to be marryed, or to be single, to haue children, or to haue none at all: finally; nothing doth fit their fancy, no∣thing doth satisfie their desire, saue onely that thing they haue not: and such folke me thinkes

must needs liue miserably, and restlesly, as prisoners fettered in perpetuall paine.

There is likewise another ma∣ner of men not much vnlike vn∣to the former, that cannot keepe themselues quiet, nor bee at any stay, in any time, or in any place. They cease not to go and come alwayes intermedling with af∣faires, without being thereunto called, and busying and bestir∣ring thēselues about that which no wise concerneth them. These men when they go out a doores, if yee but aske them whither they goe, they will answer you thus; I know not, I go to do as the rest doe. They runne along the streetes, they hant the publick places, and then they returne home full of vexation and wea∣rinesse, without any designe: for there is nothing that doth so

much irke & weary mens minds, as to labour in vaine. They are like vnto the little Ants, which do graspe vpwards vpon trees, & after they haue mounted vp to the top, haue but the paine to creepe downe againe, the same way they went vp, without brin∣ging down with them any good at all. Many do liue in this man∣ner, whose life is nothing els but a boyling leasure full of tumults and toyles, yee shall see them posting on with such vehemen∣cy and speede, as if they would carry away with them all that they finde before them in their way. The publicke places, the Churches, and Markets, are or∣dinarily full of such folkes.

These bee they which forge, and frame newes at pleasure: they will bee the weighers of mens worthes, and the giuers of

garlands. They will talke la∣uishly of other mens liues, and discourse of other mens offices, keeping a babling coyle. But the actions of a wel-aduised man tēd alwaies to some certain end; neither doth he burthen himselfe with more businesses then hee can conueniently put in executi∣on. And truely the man that vndertaketh much, must needes, in my minde, giue Fortune much power ouer him.