Whatsoever is besides either is already past, or uncertain.
The time therefore that any man doth live, is but a little,
and the place where he liveth, is but a very little corner
of the earth, and the greatest fame that can remain of a man
after his death, even that is but little, and that too,
such as it is whilst it is, is by the succession of silly mortal
men preserved, who likewise shall shortly die, and even whiles
they live know not what in very deed they themselves are:
and much less can know one, who long before is dead and gone.

XI. To these ever-present helps and mementoes, let one more be added,
ever to make a particular description and delineation as it were
of every object that presents itself to thy mind, that thou mayest
wholly and throughly contemplate it, in its own proper nature,
bare and naked; wholly, and severally; divided into its several parts
and quarters: and then by thyself in thy mind, to call both it,
and those things of which it doth consist, and in which it shall
be resolved, by their own proper true names, and appellations.
For there is nothing so effectual to beget true magnanimity,
as to be able truly and methodically to examine and consider all things
that happen in this life, and so to penetrate into their natures,
that at the same time, this also may concur in our apprehensions:
what is the true use of it? and what is the true nature of this universe,
to which it is useful? how much in regard of the universe may it be
esteemed? how much in regard of man, a citizen of the supreme city,
of which all other cities in the world are as it were but
houses and families?

XII. What is this, that now my fancy is set upon ? of what things
doth it consist? how long can it last? which of all the virtues