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The Riddles of Heraclitus and Democritus


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The Riddles of Heraclitus and Democritus.
  
[Prophesies, predictions]
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17

[One rips the earth, another cuts the seas]

One rips the earth, another cuts the seas,
And runs the world in circuite round about,
All for my sake, I doe all men so please,
That all doe seeke, which way to finde me out.
In Diadems in scepters, and in Crownes,
In robes, in rotchets, in a Cardnals hat,
In scarlet, silkes, in costly furred gownes,
In stones and pearles, and in I wot not what,
In horses haukes, hounds, harlots, and in bookes,
One flieth for me, vp into the skies,
Another downe to Plutoes raigne he lookes,
Where all this glistering Or and argent lies.
This search declares, how greatly men doe leeke me,
But they are mad so far from home to seeke me.

But men hunt after felicitie, preposterously, with too much circuition: for it is best sought at home, in a quiet soule, and cleane conscience.
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