.

delirus inersque videri, Dum mea delectent mala me, vel denique fallant, Quam sapere, et ringi." ["I had rather seem mad and a sluggard, so that my defects are agreeable to myself, or that I am not painfully conscious of them, than be wise, and chaptious."-- Hor., Ep., ii.

2, 126.] But 'tis folly to think of doing anything that way.

They go, they come, they gallop and dance, and not a word of death.

All this is very fine; but withal, when it comes either to themselves, their wives, their children, or friends, surprising them at unawares and unprepared, then, what torment, what outcries, what madness and despair! Did you ever see anything so subdued, so changed, and so confounded?
A man must, therefore, make more early provision for it; and this brutish negligence, could it possibly lodge in the brain of any man of sense (which I think utterly impossible), sells us its merchandise too dear.