Prudentes.

The Wise.

Iane bifrons, qui iam transacta futuraque calles,
Quique retro sannas, sicut & antè, vides:[1]
Tot te cur oculis, tot fingunt vultibus? an quòd
Circumspectum hominem forma fuisse docet?

Two-headed Janus, you know about what has already happened and what is yet to come, you see the jeering faces behind just as you see them in front. Why do they represent you with so many eyes, why with so many faces? Is it because this form tells us that you were a man of circumspection?

In temerarios.

The reckless

Aspicis aurigam currus Phaëtonta[1] paterni
Ignivomos ausum flectere Solis equos:
Maxima qui postquàm terris incendia sparsit,
Est temerè insesso lapsus ab axe miser.
Sic plerique rotis Fortunae ad sydera Reges
Evecti, ambitio quos iuvenilis agit.
Post magnam humani generis clademque suamque,
Cunctorum poenas denique dant scelerum.

You see here Phaethon, driving his father’s chariot, and daring to guide the fire-breathing steeds of the Sun. After spreading great conflagrations over the earth, the wretched boy fell from the car he had so rashly mounted. - Even so, the majority of kings are borne up to heaven on the wheels of Fortune, driven by youth’s ambition. After they have brought great disaster on the human race and themselves, they finally pay the penalty for all their crimes.

Phaton filius Solis & Clymenes Nym-
phae, maximè temerarius, qui instanter ac im-
portunè à patre efflagitans, ut currum et Equos
quibus Sol vehitur uno die gubernare per-
mitteretur, impetravit, sed difficilimo oneri
impar. Equi etenim ignoto rectore perterriti
in contrariam partem inclinaverunt, quos ipse
extra viam currentes retinere amplius non
potuit, inde magnum in terris incendium exor-
tum, adeoque ut Iupiter etiam Coelo timens
illum fulminis ictu de curru praecipitavit.
hinc Ovidius lib. 1. de tristibus.

Vitaret Coelum Phaëton si viveret, & quos
Optavit stultè tangere nollet Equos.

Totam autem Phaëtontis fabulam & praeci-
pitem casum describit pulchrè Ovidius lib. 2.
Metamorphoseon Similiter Reges quamplurimi, ob
dexteram fortunam ad sydera usque evecti,
sed ambitione nimia atque audacia iuvenili,
imò dominandi libidine agitati, post ma-
gnam denique iacturam, totius
etiam Reipublicae detrimento ipsi
quoque scelerum suo-
rum omnium poe-
nas luunt.