But it is time for thee to take and drain a draught, soft and pleasant to the taste, which, as it penetrates within, may prepare the way for stronger potions.

Wherefore I call to my aid the sweet persuasiveness of Rhetoric, who then only walketh in the right way when she forsakes not my instructions, and Music, my handmaid, I bid to join with her singing, now in lighter, now in graver strain.
'What is it, then, poor mortal, that hath cast thee into lamentation and mourning?
Some strange, unwonted sight, methinks, have thine eyes seen.
Thou deemest Fortune to have changed towards thee; thou mistakest.

Such ever were her ways, ever such her nature.

Rather in her very mutability hath she preserved towards thee her true constancy.

Such was she when she loaded thee with caresses, when she deluded thee with the allurements of a false happiness.