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which every thing may be compared, which have the name of frail.
Fragilita (Frailty)
A woman with a thin garment; having in her right hand, a branch of Tiglio; and in her left hand, a great glass which
hangs on a thread. The thread fits very well to it, because it breaks easily. The Tiglio is used by Virgill for the same.
Of the glass hanging on a thin thread, needs no explanation, because the glass is thin and breaks easily. Also women
are frail, and so we may compare the one with the other.
Fragilita Humana (Human frailty)
A woman wth a lean and sour countenance; nobly clothed; holding with both her hands, many icicles, which in
winter season freeze on the houses. Which icicles were (as Pierius saith) held by the ancient Egyptians as a figure of
the frailty of man's life. And it would not be amiss to express her great age better, that she was made stooping,
leaning upon a feeble rod: which is a right figure as well of frailty, as of age. For when a man is come to that, the
least hurt strikes him so that he often dies of it, and is crushed down by it. Some figure out human frailty, and not
without a cause, by water bladders: which seem a little in the eye, but immediately vanish away.
Seditione Civile (Civil sedition)
An armed woman, with a spear in her right hand; in her left hand, an oaken branch; before her feet, shall stand two
dogs who bark against one another, showing their teeth.
No other cause occassions sedition, war and civil dissention, but the body with its lusts and desires. All wars
proceed to get riches. They seek riches by force to serve the body and to bring it to ease. And therefore, they seek to
satisfy their lusts, to follow their own will and desires; which then also are provoked by their senses; either by hope
of riches, or for the love of his beloved, or by ambition to govern, or by impounding of eminence: not willing to give
way to any one, but to lord it over all. And by this means, the citizens disturb the quiet of their own state, sowing
misunderstandings in the city; and by a common commotion, rise up in arms. Wherefore she is painted in arms. Of
this sedition, every good citizen ought to desist, because of the common quiet, and to root out the same: as
Philostratus saith. Therefore it is an ungodly thing that citizens among themselves should study evil, as Homerus
saith. Solon certainly is not to be commended in his law, when he counts a man dishonest who takes not the one
party or the other when any civil sedition arises. Whereof Plutarchus to Appollonius remembers, in his transaction of
the common good, saith he: we may not accuse anybody that he will not join on the one side, to use force, separating
himself from the citizens; but the rather, an ordinary citizen is to be accused who helps to instigate sedition. And that
man ought not to be blamed, because he had no part in the seditious misery. For it appears that this man, most
commonly is sad for the unhappy condition of the citizens. And we ought, saith Plutarchus, to strive above all that
never any sedition may happen. And this is, as a civil policy, highly to be esteemed. Therefore, a good citizen ought
to interpose himself in the beginning between differences, for all they are but particular; because no tumult should
arise among the citizens -- for it proceeds from particular to the common business. All fires do not begin in great
houses. But often a dispised spark or neglected candle, fires a whole house; which after, breaks forth to a common
loss. Therefore Plutarchus adds: "This alone is wanting in a Politic citizen: that out of duty he teaches his fellow
citizens to use unity and common friendship; and that he strives that all debates, discords, tummults and enmities,
may be laid down and destroyed."
The branch of the oak which she holds in her left hand, is put for a figure of Civil Sedition; because these trees do
push and strike together until they break. Wherefore Aristotle, in the behalf of Pericles, said: "that the Beotians were
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