Friendly love perfecteth it; but Wanton love Corrupteth and Imbaseth[1] it.
XI
OF GREAT PLACE
Men in Great Place[2] are thrice Servants: Servants of the Soveraigne or State; Servants of Fame[3]; and Servants of Businesse: So as[4] they have no Freedome, neither in their Persons, nor in their Actions, nor in their Times. It is a strange desire, to seeke Power and to lose Libertie; Or to seeke Power over others and to lose Power over a Man's Selfe. The Rising unto Place is Laborious, And by Paines Men come to greater Paines; And it is sometimes base, And by Indignities Men come to Dignities. The standing is slippery, and the Regresse is either a downefall, or at least an Eclipse, which is a Melancholy Thing. Cùm non sis qui fueris, non esse cur velis vivere[5]. Nay, retire Men cannot when they would; neither will they when it were Reason[6]: But are impatient of privatenesse[7] even in Age and Sicknesse, which require the Shadow[8]; Like old Townesmen, that will be still[9] sitting at their Street doore, though thereby they offer Age to Scorne. Certainly Great Persons had need to borrow other Men's Opinions to thinke themselves happy; For if they iudge by their owne Feeling they cannot finde it: But if they thinke with themselves what other men thinke of them, and that other men would faine be as they are, then they are happy, as it were by report, When perhaps they finde the Contrary within. For they are the first that finde their owne Griefs, though they be the last that finde their owne Faults. Certainly, Men in
