You Will Find, However,
That The Practices Of The Court And Of The Schools Are Extremely
Similar; As Well In The Subtleties They Employ To Lead You Forward,
As In The Steadiness With Which They Generally Maintain Their Own
Positions.
Yet it is certain that the knowledge of logic (the
acumen, if I may so express it, of all
Other sciences as well as
arts) is very useful, when restricted within proper bounds; whilst
the court (i.e. courtly language), excepting to sycophants or
ambitious men, is by no means necessary. For if you are successful
at court, ambition never wholly quits its hold till satiated, and
allures and draws you still closer; but if your labour is thrown
away, you still continue the pursuit, and, together with your
substance, lose your time, the greatest and most irretrievable of
all losses. There is likewise some resemblance between the court
and the game of dice, as the poet observes:-
"Sic ne perdiderit non cessat perdere lusor,
Dum revocat cupidas alea blanda manus;"
which, by substituting the word CURIA for ALEA, may be applied to
the court. This further proof of their resemblance may be added;
that as the chances of the dice and court are not productive of any
real delight, so they are equally distributed to the worthy and the
unworthy.
Since, therefore, among so many species of men, each follows his own
inclination, and each is actuated by different desires, a regard for
posterity has induced me to choose the study of composition; and, as
this life is temporary and mutable, it is grateful to live in the
memory of future ages, and to be immortalized by fame; for to toil
after that which produces envy in life, but glory after death, is a
sure indication of an elevated mind.
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