55. How men come to pursue different, and often evil, courses.
From what has been said, it is easy to give an
account how it comes to pass, that, though all men desire happiness, yet their wills carry them so contrarily; and
consequently some of them to what is evil. And to this I say, that the various and contrary choices that men make
in the world do not argue that they do not all pursue good; but that the same thing is not good to every man alike.
This variety of pursuits shows, that every one does not place his happiness in the same thing, or choose the same
way to it. Were all the concerns of man terminated in this life, why one followed study and knowledge, and
another hawking and hunting: why one chose luxury and debauchery, and another sobriety and riches, would not
be because every one of these did not aim at his own happiness; but because their happiness was placed in
different things. And therefore it was a right answer of the physician to his patient that had sore eyes:--If you
have more pleasure in the taste of wine than in the use of your sight, wine is good for you; but if the pleasure of
seeing be greater to you than that of drinking, wine is naught.