- described by
Sir WALTER RALEIGH.
[History of the World.]
In this also is the little World of Man compared and made more like the Universal . . . in that the four Complexions resemble the four Elements; and the seven Ages of man, the seven Planets.
Whereof our Infancy is compared to the Moon; in which we seem only to live and grow, as plants.
The second Age, to Mercury; wherein we are taught and instructed.
Our third Age, to Venus; the days of Love, Desire and Vanity.
The fourth, to the Sun; the strong, flourishing and beautiful Age of man's life.
The fifth, to Mars; in which we seek honour and victory, and in which our thoughts travel to ambitious ends.
The sixth Age is ascribed to Jupiter; in which we begin to take account of our times, judge of ourselves, and grow to the perfection of our understanding.
The last and seventh, to Saturn; wherein our days are sad and overcast: and in which we find by dear and lamentable experience, and by the loss which can never be repaired; that, of all our vain passions and affections past, the sorrow only abideth. Our attendants are Sicknesses and Variable Infirmities: and by how much the more we are accompanied with plenty, by so much the more greedily is our end desired. Whom, when Time hath made unsociable to others; we become a burden to ourselves: being of no other use than to hold the riches we have from our successors. In this time it is, when we, for the most part (and never before) prepare for our Eternal Habitation; which we pass on unto with many sighs, groans and sad thoughts: and in the end (by the workmanship of DEATH) finish the sorrowful business of a wretched life. Towards which we always travel, both sleeping and waking. Neither have those beloved companions of Honour and Riches any power at all to hold us any one day by the glorious promise of entertainments: but by what crooked path soever we walk; the same leadeth on directly to the House of DEATH, whose doors lie open at all hours, and to all persons.
