Chapter 49

_Enter_ VIRTUE _and_ EQUITY, _with other attendants_.

VIR. My lords, you see how far this worldly state perverted is; From good declin'd, inclined still to follow things amiss: You see but very few that make of Virtue any price: You see all sorts with hungry wills run headlong into vice.

EQ. We see it oft, we sorrow much, and heartily lament, That of himself man should not have a better government.

VER. The very beasts that be devoid of reason, dull and dumb, By nature learn to shun those things whereof their hurt may come. If man were then but as a beast, only by nature taught, He would also by nature learn to shun what things are nought. But man with reason is endued: he reason hath for stay; Which reason should restrain his will from going much astray.

EQ. Madam, 'tis true: Where reason rules, there is the golden mean.

VER. But most men stoop to stubborn will, Which conquereth reason clean.

EQ. And will again to fancy yields, Which twain be special guides, That train a man to tread ill paths, Where ease and pleasure bides.

VER. No ease, no pleasure, can be good, that is not got with pains.

EQ. That is the cause from Virtue's love Man's fancy still refrains.

VER. And pains, I think, they feel likewise, That unto vice do bend.

EQ. They feel, no doubt: but yet such pains Come not before the end.

VIR. I grieve for man, that man should be of ill attempts so[413] fain.

EQ. Grieve not for that: evil tasted once, turns him to good again.

VIR. Then will I take a cheerful mind, Unpleasant thoughts expel, And cares for man commit to them, That in the heavens do dwell.

EQ. Do so, dear madam, I beseech you most heartily, And recreate yourself, before you go hence, with some sweet melody.

_The Song.

If pleasure be the only thing, That man doth seek so much: Chief pleasures rest, where virtue rules: No pleasure[s] can be such.

Though Virtue's ways be very strait, Her rocks be hard to climb: Yet such as do aspire thereto, Enjoy all joys in time.

Plain is the passage unto vice, The gaps lie wide to ill: To them that wade through lewdness' lake The ice is broken still.

This therefore is the difference, The passage first seems hard To Virtue's train; but then most sweet At length is their reward.

To those again, that follow vice, The way is fair and plain; But fading pleasures in the end Are bought with lasting[414] pain.

If pleasure be the only thing, &c_.