116 Ulysses Aldrovandi

seeing these things, I am tormented, for if any life is judged the best, it still contains more evils than goods.

For this reason, in the opinion of Job, man, living for a brief time, is filled with many miseries. Thus, by despising pleasures and filling the soul with virtues, one should recall the resurrection while contemplating the rising sun, and remember death when watching it set, according to the verse:

“At sunrise, remember your return from death; at sunset, be mindful of your own passing.”

By this reasoning, a man makes himself ready and inclined toward every virtue.

THE VIRTUES OF MAN

Men who are most highly praised for every virtue, and who leave the traces of their excellence everywhere, have desde the start exhausted both mind and body with labors. They tasted bitterness in the beginning so that they might eventually savor the sweetest and most pleasing fruit of virtue, as the saying goes:

“If the root of virtue tastes bitter to your palate, do not spit it out; later, the fruit will be more pleasing to you.”

Indeed, if a rich man is adorned with the splendid ornaments of virtue, he shines all the more brightly; as Aeschylus said: “Oh, what a heavy burden is a wealthy man without wisdom!”

Furthermore, a man born in a humble place who is nevertheless learned, as if placed before a mirror, shows himself to others as a model and example of virtue. Therefore, a certain poet wrote quite aptly:

“Do not be ashamed of being born of obscure parents; a studious mind precedes fortune. The mother of Euripides used to sell vegetables; the pupil of Parthenis once fashioned small jars. The father of Demosthenes polished swords by trade, and Caesar was born of a painter father. Even he whom the oracles of Phoebus called the wisest surely had poor parents. If you are already famous enough by your own virtue, why should your needy lot care about the conspicuous wealth of your ancestors?”

Thus, among those things that contribute in some way to the perfection of man through industrious effort, knowledge claims the primary role. Since all other things are capable of being perfected, they are brought to a perfect end by the aid of science. First, man discovered the seven liberal arts and teaches them: namely Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectic (or Logic), Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, and Astronomy.

Indeed, man is endowed with such a sharp intellect that he has been able to penetrate even into the heavens, observing the rising and setting of the stars and predicting the eclipses of the luminaries. For this reason, Manilius was moved to sing: “Who doubts after this that man is connected to Heaven? Nature gave him an extraordinary tongue and a capacious mind.”

Moreover, man is skilled in Philosophy, Medicine, Jurisprudence, History, the science of agriculture, cooking, and navigation—and indeed Theology, which should have been mentioned first. We might also pass over the arts in which men have shone with such excellence that they were regarded as miraculous. Let one man, Mermecides, stand as an example for all: a craftsman so industrious and diligent that he fashioned a four-horse chariot that could be covered by the wings of a fly.

Human ingenuity has reached even further, discovering a way to restrain a swiftly running wild beast. Indeed, it is read in the Scholia of Paracelsus that a man carrying a topaz in his mouth along with a leaf of southernwood, while following a wild beast with his eyes, then