So as Diogenes' opinion is to be accepted, who
commended not them which abstained, but them which sustained, and
could refrain their mind in praecipitio, and could give unto the
mind (as is used in horsemanship) the shortest stop or turn.
(12) Lastly, it censureth the tenderness and want of application in
some of the most ancient and reverend philosophers and philosophical
men, that did retire too easily from civil business, for avoiding of
indignities and perturbations; whereas the resolution of men truly
moral ought to be such as the same Consalvo said the honour of a
soldier should be, e tela crassiore, and not so fine as that
everything should catch in it and endanger it.
XXI. (1) To resume private or particular good, it falleth into the
division of good active and passive; for this difference of good
(not unlike to that which amongst the Romans was expressed in the
familiar or household terms of promus and condus) is formed also in
all things, and is best disclosed in the two several appetites in
creatures; the one to preserve or continue themselves, and the other
to dilate or multiply themselves, whereof the latter seemeth to be
the worthier; for in nature the heavens, which are the more worthy,
are the agent, and the earth, which is the less worthy, is the
patient.
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