For as we see,
upon the lute or like instrument, a ground, though it be sweet and
have show of many changes, yet breaketh not the hand to such strange
and hard stops and passages, as a set song or voluntary; much after
the same manner was the diversity between a philosophical and civil
life. And, therefore, men are to imitate the wisdom of jewellers:
who, if there be a grain, or a cloud, or an ice which may be ground
forth without taking too much of the stone, they help it; but if it
should lessen and abate the stone too much, they will not meddle
with it: so ought men so to procure serenity as they destroy not
magnanimity.
(6) Having therefore deduced the good of man which is private and
particular, as far as seemeth fit, we will now return to that good
of man which respecteth and beholdeth society, which we may term
duty; because the term of duty is more proper to a mind well framed
and disposed towards others, as the term of virtue is applied to a
mind well formed and composed in itself; though neither can a man
understand virtue without some relation to society, nor duty without
an inward disposition.
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