Fifth Argument
Good people fail and fools win. Fate, says Manilius.
[p. 8] Successless Vertue sinks whilst Vice prevails,And Folly wins the Prize when Prudence fails:He argues ill that from the Fortune drawsThe goodness or the badness of a Cause:Success or Merit do not always Crown,Midst good and bad Men they are blindly thrownWithout Respect, fixt fatally on One.For some superior Power's impetuous forceMarks out our way, and still directs the Course;The Years that we must run, the length, the pace,And all the various turnings of the Race.
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The text is Thomas Creech's 1697 verse translation, checked word by word between three scans of the same type (the 1697 printing, the 1700 printing and a third copy). The long s is printed as s; every other spelling is Creech's. Pages are cited as the 1697 printing numbers them. The portrait is William Marshall’s engraving of Lilly from the front of the 1659 printing (Wellcome Library, public domain).