treasure is in Minerva's tower. Greater preferment as I could never get, so
am I not in debt for it, I have a competence (_laus Deo_) from my noble and
munificent patrons, though I live still a collegiate student, as Democritus
in his garden, and lead a monastic life, _ipse mihi theatrum_, sequestered
from those tumults and troubles of the world, _Et tanquam in specula
positus_, ([42]as he said) in some high place above you all, like Stoicus
Sapiens, _omnia saecula, praeterita presentiaque videns, uno velut
intuitu_, I hear and see what is done abroad, how others [43]run, ride,
turmoil, and macerate themselves in court and country, far from those
wrangling lawsuits, _aulia vanitatem, fori ambitionem, ridere mecum soleo_:
I laugh at all, [44]only secure, lest my suit go amiss, my ships perish,
corn and cattle miscarry, trade decay, I have no wife nor children good or
bad to provide for. A mere spectator of other men's fortunes and
adventures, and how they act their parts, which methinks are diversely
presented unto me, as from a common theatre or scene. I hear new news every
day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations,
thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies,
apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey,
Persia, Poland, &c., daily musters and preparations, and such like, which
these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain,
monomachies, shipwrecks, piracies and sea-fights; peace, leagues,
stratagems, and fresh alarms. A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions,
edicts, petitions, lawsuits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints,
grievances are daily brought to our ears. New books every day, pamphlets,
corantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new
paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy,
religion, &c. Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries,
entertainments, jubilees, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies,
triumphs, revels, sports, plays: then again, as in a new shifted scene,
treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villainies in all kinds,