And he said, Lo, [it is] yet high day, neither [is it] time that the cattle should be gathered together: water ye the sheep, and go [and] feed [them].
Ver. 7. Neither is it time, &c.] Time is a precious commodity, and must be thriftily husbanded. The common complaint is, We want time: but the truth is, we do not so much want, as waste it, as the heathen observed: a which they that do, are wastefullest prodigals: for, of all other possessions, two may be had together; but two moments of time cannot be possessed together. This made the philosopher so parsimonious of time: Nullus mihi per otium exit dies - I cannot afford to cast away a day; pattem noctium studiis vindico - part of the night I take for my studies. So did Charles the Great; and after him, Charles the Fifth, who, when at any time in the field against the enemy, spent what hours he could spare in the study of the mathematics. He had, for that purpose, as his instructor, Turrianus of Cremona ever with him. As if he had been of Cato's mind, b that great men must be able to give good account, non minus otii, quam negotii; no less of their leisure, than of their labour. His constant custom was, saith Cicero, c to call to mind, at evening, what thing soever he had seen, read, or done, that day. King Alfred, that reigned here (Anno Dom. 872), is said to have cast the natural day into three parts: eight hours he spent in praying, study, and writing; eight in the service of his body; eight in the affairs of state. Which spaces (having then no other engine for it) he measured by a great wax light, divided into so many parts; receiving notice by the keeper thereof, as the various hours passed in the burning. d
“ Qui nescit quo vita modo volat, audiat horas:
Quam sit vita brevis, nos docet ille sonus .”
a Non parum habemus temporis, sed multum perdimus. - Senec. Epist.
b Cato in Orig .
c Cic. De Senect .
d Dan. Chron ., fol. 13.