To be content that times to come should only know
there was such a man, not caring whether they knew
more of him, was a frigid ambition in Cardan;+ dispar-
aging his horoscopal inclination and judgment of himself.
Who cares to subsist like Hippocrates's patients, or
Achilles's horses in Homer, under naked nominations,
without deserts and noble acts, which are the balsam
of our memories, the
entelechia and soul of our sub-
sistences? To be nameless in worthy deeds, exceeds
an infamous history. The Canaanitish woman lives
more happily without a name, than Herodias with
one. And who had not rather have been the good
thief, than Pilate?
* The character of death.
+ "Cuperem notum esse quod sim non opto ut sciatur
qualis sim."
But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her
poppy, and deals with the memory of men without
distinction to merit of perpetuity. Who can but
pity the founder of the pyramids? Herostratus lives
that burnt the temple of Diana, he is almost lost that
built it.
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