Or had he bin present with Icaromenippus in Lucian at Jupiters whispering place, and heard one pray for rain, another for fair weather; one for his wives, another for his fathers death, &c. to ask that at Gods hand which they are abashed any man should hear: How would he have been confounded? Would he, think you, or any man else, say that these men were well in their wits? Hæc sani esse hominis quis sanus juret Orestes? Can all the Hellebor in the Anticyræ cure these men? No sure, an acre of Hellebor will not do it.

That which is more to be lamented, they are mad like Seneca’s blind woman, and will not acknowledge, or seek for any cure of it, for pauci vident morbum suum, omnes amant, If our leg or arm offend us, we covet by all means possible to redresse it; and if we labor of a bodily disease, we send for a physician; but for the diseases of the minde we take no notice of them:

Lust harrows us on the one side, envy, anger, ambition on the other. We are torn in pieces by our passions, as so many wild horses; one in disposition, another in habit; one is melancholy, another mad; and which of us all seeks for help, doth acknowledge his error, or knows he is sick? As that stupid fellow put out the Candle, because the biting fleas should not finde him; he shrouds himself in an unknown habit, borrowed titles, because no body should discern him.

Every man thinks with himself Egomet videor mihi sanus, I am well, I am wise, and laughs at others. And tis a generall fault amongst them all, that which our forefathers have approved, diet, apparel, opinions, humors, customs, manners, we deride and reject in our time as absurd. Old men account Juniors all fools, when they are meer dizards; and as to sailers —— terræque urbesque recedunt —— they move, the land stands still, the world hath much more wit, they dote themselves.

Turks deride us, we them; Italians Frenchmen, accounting them light headed fellows; the French scoffe again at Italians, and at their several customs; Greeks have condemned all the world but themselves of barbarism, the world as much vilifies them now; we account Germans heavy, dull fellows, explode many of their fashions; they as contemptibly think of us; Spaniards laugh at all, and all again at them.

So are we fools and ridiculous, absurd in our actions, carriages, dyet, apparel, customs and consultations; we scoffe and point one at another, when as in conclusion all are fools, and they the veriest asses that hide their ears most. A private man if he be resolved with himself, or set on an opinion, accounts all idiots and asses that are not affected as he is, —— nil rectum, nisi quod placuit sibi, ducit, that are not so minded, (quodque volunt homines se bene velle putant) all fools that think not as he doth: he will not say with Atticus, Suam quisque sponsam, mihi meam, let every man enjoy his own spouse; but his alone is fair, suus amor, &c.

and scorns all in respect of himself, wil imitate none, hear none but himself, as Pliny said, a law and example to himself. And that which Hippocrates in his epistle to Dyonysius, reprehended of old, is verified in our times, Quisque in alio superfluum esse censet, ipse quod non habet nec curat, that which he hath not himself or doth not esteem, he accounts superfluity, an idle quality, a meer foppery in another: like Æsops fox, when he had lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs.

The Chinezes say that we Europeans have one eye, they themselves two, all the world else is blinde: (though Scaliger accounts them Brutes too, merum pecus,) so thou and thy sectaries are only wise, others indifferent, the rest beside themselves, meer idiots and asses. Thus not acknowledging our own errors, and imperfections, we securely deride others, as if we alone were free, and spectators of the rest, accounting it an excellent thing, as indeed it is, Aliena optimum frui insaniâ, to make our selves merry with other mens obliquities, when as he himself is more faulty then the rest:

mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur, he may take himself by the nose for a fool; and which one cals maximum stultitiæ specimen, to be ridiculous to others, and not to perceive or take notice of it, as Marsyas was when he contended with Apollo, non intelligens se deridiculo haberi, saith Apuleius; tis his own cause, he is a convict madman, as Austin wel infers, In the eyes of wise men and Angels he seems like one, that to our thinking walks with his heels upward.

So thou laughest at me, and I at thee, both at a third; and he returns that of the poet upon us again, Hei mihi, insanire me aiunt, quum ipsi ultro insaniant. We accuse others of madnesse, of folly, and are the veriest dizards our selves. For it is a great sign and propertie of a fool (which Eccl. 10. 3. points at) out of pride and self-conceit to insult, vilifie, condemn, censure, and call other men fools (Non videmus manticæ quod à tergo est) to tax that in others, of which we are most faulty; teach that which we follow not our selves: