Demosthenes, "that the beginning oh all virtue is consultation and deliberation; the end and perfection, constancy." If we would resolve on any certain course by reason, we should pitch upon the best, but nobody has thought on't: "Quod petit, spernit; repetit, quod nuper omisit; AEstuat, et vitae disconvenit ordine toto." ["That which he sought he despises; what he lately lost, he seeks again.

He fluctuates, and is inconsistent in the whole order of life."-- Horace, Ep., i.

I, 98.] Our ordinary practice is to follow the inclinations of our appetite, be it to the left or right, upwards or downwards, according as we are wafted by the breath of occasion.

We never meditate what we would have till the instant we have a mind to have it; and change like that little creature which receives its colour from what it is laid upon.

What we but just now proposed to ourselves we immediately alter, and presently return again to it; 'tis nothing but shifting and inconsistency: "Ducimur, ut nervis alienis mobile lignum." ["We are turned about like the top with the thong of others." -- Idem, Sat., ii.