In facilè à virtute desciscentes.

Easily deflected from the right course

Parva velut limax Remora spreto[1] impete venti,
Remorumque, ratem sistere sola potest.
Sic quosdam ingenio & virtute ad sydera vectos,
Detinet in medio tramite causa levis.
Anxia lis veluti est, vel qui meretricius ardor
Egregiis iuvenes sevocat à studiis.[2]

Just as the little slug, the remora, scorning the impetus of wind and oars, can by itself stop a ship from moving, so some trivial reason holds back in mid-course people who through intellect and ability are on their way to the stars: for example, a worrying law-suit, or that desire for whores which entices young men away from their good studies.

Remora à remorando, aliàs Echeneis dicta,
piscis quidam est parvulus, aspectu niger, lon-
  Link to an image of this page  [f4r p87]gitudine mediocri, qui in mari etiam contra se-
cundos ventos & remes solus navigium quod-
cunque maximum adhaerendo navalibus tabu-
lamentis retinet, adeoque constrictum retinet,
ut amplius nec currere nec procedere possit,
quae res vectores angit, & solicitos vehementer
habet. Plinius li. 9. cap. 25. & li. 32. cap. 1. Isidorus &
Aelianus li. 12. cap. 45. referunt. Sic etiam homines
quosdam licet admodum ingeniosos virtuo-
sosque retardat & impedit causa aliqua levissi-
ma, ut in medio cursu pergere amplius non
possint, veluti in quibusdam est anxia lis, vel
amor meretricum & huiusmodi quae plerunque
iuvenes ab egregiis & seriis studiis distrahunt.