gave it, nor can restore it, nor is able to pay any considerable
value for the least part of it. This birthright of mankind above
all other creatures some are forced by hunger to sell, like Esau,
for bread and broth; but the greatest part of men make such a
bargain for the delivery up of themselves, as Thamar did with Judah;
instead of a kid, the necessary provisions for human life, they are
contented to do it for rings and bracelets. The great dealers in
this world may be divided into the ambitious, the covetous, and the
voluptuous; and that all these men sell themselves to be slaves--
though to the vulgar it may seem a Stoical paradox--will appear to
the wise so plain and obvious that they will scarce think it
deserves the labour of argumentation. Let us first consider the
ambitious; and those, both in their progress to greatness, and after
the attaining of it. There is nothing truer than what Sallust says:
"Dominationis in alios servitium suum, mercedem dant": They are
content to pay so great a price as their own servitude to purchase
the domination over others. The first thing they must resolve to
sacrifice is their whole time; they must never stop, nor ever turn
aside whilst they are in the race of glory; no, not like Atalanta
for golden apples; "Neither indeed can a man stop himself, if he
would, when he is in this, career. Fertur equis auriga neque audit
currus habenas.

Pray let us but consider a little what mean, servile things men do
for this imaginary food. We cannot fetch a greater example of it
than from the chief men of that nation which boasted most of
liberty. To what pitiful baseness did the noblest Romans submit
themselves for the obtaining of a praetorship, or the consular
dignity? They put on the habit of suppliants, and ran about, on
foot and in dirt, through all the tribes to beg voices; they