Johannes Antonius di Johannes Ambrosius de Bolate. He who lets time
pass and does not grow in virtue, the more I think of it the more I
grieve. No man has it in him to be virtuous who will give up honour
for gain. Good fortune is valueless to him who knows not toil. The
man becomes happy who follows Christ. There is no perfect gift
without great suffering. Our glories and our triumphs pass away.
Foul lust, and dreams, and luxury, and sloth have banished every
virtue from the world; so that our Nature, wandering and perplexed,
has almost lost the old and better track. Henceforth it were well to
rouse thyself from sleep. The master said that lying in down will
not bring thee to Fame; nor staying beneath the quilts. He who,
without Fame, burns his life to waste, leaves no more vestige of
himself on earth than wind-blown smoke, or the foam upon the sea.
[Footnote: From the last sentence we may infer that this text is by
the hand of a pupil of Leonardo's.-- On the same sheet are the notes
Nos.1175 and 715 in Leonardo's own handwriting.]