either sincerely and conscionably, or cheerful and contentedly;
yet is he neither with any man at all angry for it, nor diverted
by it from the way that leadeth to the end of his life, through which
a man must pass pure, ever ready to depart, and willing of himself
without any compulsion to fit and accommodate himself to his proper
lot and portion.


THE FOURTH BOOK

I. That inward mistress part of man if it be in its own true
natural temper, is towards all worldly chances and events ever
so disposed and affected, that it will easily turn and apply
itself to that which may be, and is within its own power
to compass, when that cannot be which at first it intended.
For it never doth absolutely addict and apply itself to any one object,
but whatsoever it is that it doth now intend and prosecute,
it doth prosecute it with exception and reservation; so that
whatsoever it is that falls out contrary to its first intentions,
even that afterwards it makes its proper object. Even as
the fire when it prevails upon those things that are in his way;
by which things indeed a little fire would have been quenched,
but a great fire doth soon turn to its own nature, and so consume
whatsoever comes in his way: yea by those very things it is made
greater and greater. II. Let nothing be done rashly, and at random,
but all things according to the most exact and perfect rules
of art. III. They seek for themselves private retiring places,
as country villages, the sea-shore, mountains; yea thou thyself
art wont to long much after such places. But all this thou
must know proceeds from simplicity in the highest degree.