Chapter VII

Now what should I speak of bodily pleasures, the desire of which is full
of anxiety, and the enjoying of them breeds repentance? How many
diseases, how intolerable griefs bring they forth in the bodies of their
possessors, as it were the fruits of their own wickedness! I know not
what sweetness their beginnings have, but whosoever will remember his
lusts shall understand that the end of pleasure is sadness. Which if it
be able to cause happiness, there is no reason why beasts should not be
thought blessed, whose whole intention is bent to supply their corporal
wants. That pleasure which proceedeth from wife and children should be
most honest; but it was too naturally spoken, that some tormentor
invented children, whose condition, whatsoever it be, how biting it is,
I need not tell thee, who hast had experience heretofore, and art not
now free from care. In which I approve the opinion of Euripides, who
said that they which had no children are happy by being
unfortunate.[129]

[129] Cf. _Androm._ 420.

VII.

Habet hoc uoluptas omnis, Stimulis agit fruentes Apiumque par uolantum Vbi grata mella fudit, Fugit et nimis tenaci 5 Ferit icta corda morsu.

VII.

All pleasure hath this property,
She woundeth those who have her most.
And, like unto the angry bee
Who hath her pleasant honey lost,
She flies away with nimble wing
And in our hearts doth leave her sting.