The [446]Abderites condemned Democritus for a mad man, because he was sometimes sad, and sometimes again profusely merry. Hac Patria (saith Hippocrates) ob risum furere et insanire dicunt, his countrymen hold him mad because he laughs; [447]and therefore “he desires him to advise all his friends at Rhodes, that they do not laugh too much, or be over sad.”  Had those Abderites been conversant with us, and but seen what [448] fleering and grinning there is in this age, they would certainly have concluded, we had been all out of our wits.

Aristotle in his Ethics holds felix idemque sapiens, to be wise and happy, are reciprocal terms, bonus idemque sapiens honestus.  ’Tis [449] Tully’s paradox, “wise men are free, but fools are slaves,” liberty is a power to live according to his own laws, as we will ourselves:  who hath this liberty? who is free?

[450]   ------“sapiens sibique imperiosus,
Quem neque pauperis, neque mors, neque vincula terrent,
Responsare cupidinibus, contemnere honores
Fortis, et in seipso totus teres atque rotundus.”

       “He is wise that can command his own will,
        Valiant and constant to himself still,
        Whom poverty nor death, nor bands can fright,
        Checks his desires, scorns honours, just and right.”

But where shall such a man be found?  If no where, then e diametro, we are all slaves, senseless, or worse. Nemo malus felix.  But no man is happy in this life, none good, therefore no man wise. [451]_Rari quippe boni_------ For one virtue you shall find ten vices in the same party; pauci Promethei, multi Epimethei.  We may peradventure usurp the name, or attribute it to others for favour, as Carolus Sapiens, Philippus Bonus, Lodovicus Pius, &c., and describe the properties of a wise man, as Tully doth an orator, Xenophon Cyrus, Castilio a courtier, Galen temperament, an aristocracy is described by politicians.  But where shall such a man be found?

       “Vir bonus et sapiens, qualem vix repperit unum
        Millibus e multis hominum consultus Apollo.”

       “A wise, a good man in a million,
        Apollo consulted could scarce find one.”

A man is a miracle of himself, but Trismegistus adds, Maximum miraculum homo sapiens, a wise man is a wonder:  multi Thirsigeri, pauci Bacchi.

Alexander when he was presented with that rich and costly casket of king Darius, and every man advised him what to put in it, he reserved it to keep Homer’s works, as the most precious jewel of human wit, and yet [452] Scaliger upbraids Homer’s muse, Nutricem insanae sapientiae, a nursery of madness, [453]impudent as a court lady, that blushes at nothing.  Jacobus Mycillus, Gilbertus Cognatus, Erasmus, and almost all posterity admire Lucian’s luxuriant wit, yet Scaliger rejects him in his censure, and calls him the Cerberus of the muses.  Socrates, whom all