he hide his claws, will at last discover his rapine: the lion's looks
are not the maps of his meaning, nor a man's physnomy is not the
display of his secrets. Fire cannot be hid in the straw, nor the
nature of man so concealed, but at last it will have his course:
nurture and art may do much, but that _natura naturans_, which by
propagation is ingrafted in the heart, will be at last perforce
predominant according to the old verse:

Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret.

So fared it with Saladyne, for after a month's mourning was passed, he
fell to consideration of his father's testament; how he had
bequeathed more to his younger brothers than himself, that Rosader was
his father's darling, but now under his tuition, that as yet they were
not come to years, and he being their guardian, might, if not defraud
them of their due, yet make such havoc of their legacies and lands, as
they should be a great deal the lighter: whereupon he began thus to
meditate with himself:

SALADYNE'S MEDITATION WITH HIMSELF

"Saladyne, how art thou disquieted in thy thoughts, and perplexed with
a world of restless passions, having thy mind troubled with the tenor
of thy father's testament, and thy heart fired with the hope of
present preferment! By the one thou art counselled to content thee
with thy fortunes, by the other persuaded to aspire to higher wealth.
Riches, Saladyne, is a great royalty, and there is no sweeter physic
than store. Avicen, like a fool, forgot in his Aphorisms to say that
gold was the most precious restorative, and that treasure was the most
excellent medicine of the mind. O Saladyne, what, were thy father's