I apply myself to what I see and to what I have in my hand, and go not very far from the shore,

“Alter remus aquas, alter tibi radat arenas:” 

     ["One oar plunging into the sea, the other raking the sands.” 
     —­Propertius, iii. 3, 23.]

and besides, a man rarely arrives at these advancements but in first hazarding what he has of his own; and I am of opinion that if a man have sufficient to maintain him in the condition wherein he was born and brought up, ’tis a great folly to hazard that upon the uncertainty of augmenting it.  He to whom fortune has denied whereon to set his foot, and to settle a quiet and composed way of living, is to be excused if he venture what he has, because, happen what will, necessity puts him upon shifting for himself: 

“Capienda rebus in malis praeceps via est:” 

          ["A course is to be taken in bad cases.” (or),
          “A desperate case must have a desperate course.”
          —–­Seneca, Agamemnon, ii. 1, 47.]

and I rather excuse a younger brother for exposing what his friends have left him to the courtesy of fortune, than him with whom the honour of his family is entrusted, who cannot be necessitous but by his own fault.  I have found a much shorter and more easy way, by the advice of the good friends I had in my younger days, to free myself from any such ambition, and to sit still: 

          “Cui sit conditio dulcis sine pulvere palmae:” 

     ["What condition can compare with that where one has gained the
     palm without the dust of the course.”—­Horace, Ep., i.  I, 51.]

judging rightly enough of my own strength, that it was not capable of any great matters; and calling to mind the saying of the late Chancellor Olivier, that the French were like monkeys that swarm up a tree from branch to branch, and never stop till they come to the highest, and there shew their breech.

          “Turpe est, quod nequeas, capiti committere pondus,
          Et pressum inflexo mox dare terga genu.”

     ["It is a shame to load the head so that it cannot bear the
     burthen, and the knees give way.”—­Propertius, iii. 9, 5.]

I should find the best qualities I have useless in this age; the facility of my manners would have been called weakness and negligence; my faith and conscience, scrupulosity and superstition; my liberty and freedom would have been reputed troublesome, inconsiderate, and rash.  Ill luck is good for something.  It is good to be born in a very depraved age; for so, in comparison of others, you shall be reputed virtuous good cheap; he who in our days is but a parricide and a sacrilegious person is an honest man and a man of honour: 

              “Nunc, si depositum non inficiatur amicus,
               Si reddat veterem cum tota aerugine follem,
               Prodigiosa fides, et Tuscis digna libellis,
               Quaeque coronata lustrari debeat agna:”