ing and knowledge of the sciences, had he not been so versatile and changeful, but the instability of his character caused him to undertake many things which having commenced he afterwards abandoned. In arithmetic, for example, he made such rapid progress in the short time during which he gave his attention to it, that he often confounded the master who was teaching him, by the perpetual doubts he started, and by the difficulty of the questions he proposed, lie also commenced the study of music, and resolved to acquire the art of playing the lute, when, being by nature of an exalted imagination and full of the most graceful vivacity, he sang to that instrument most divinely, improvising at once the verses and the music.[1]
- ↑ Of Leonardo’s poetical compositions, the following sonnet, preserved to
us by the care of Lomazzo, is the only specimen remaining:—
Chi non può quel che vuol, quel che può voglia;
Che quel che non si può folle è volere.
Adunque saggio l’uomo è da tenere,
Che da quel che non può sua vogler toglia.
Però che ogni diletto nostro e doglia
Sta in sì e nò saper, voler, potere;
Adunque quel sol può, che col dovere
Ne trae la ragion fuor di sua soglia.
Nè sempre è da voler, quel che l’uom pote.
Spesso par dolce quel che torna amaro.
Piansi già quel ch’io volsi, poi ch’io l'ebbi.
Adunque tu’ lettor di queste note,
S’a te vuoi esser buono, e agli altri caro,
Vogli sempre poter quel che tu debbi.Which may thus be rendered:—
If what thou would’st thou can’st not, then content thee
To will as thou may'st act. It is but folly
To will what cannot be. Soon learns the wise
To wrest his will from bootless wishes free.
Our bliss and woe depend alike on knowledge
Of what we should do, and, that known, to do it.
But he alone shall compass tliis who never
Doth warp his will when right before him stands.
All he can do, man may not safely will.
Oft seemeth sweet what soon to bitter turns.
How have I wept of some fond wish possessed!
Thou, therefore, reader of these lines, would’st thou
Count with the good, and to the good be dear?
Will only to be potent for the right.
