[150] In the first place it calls itself a severe day, having regard to the boy who is mocking it; for by him and by every fool the road which leads to virtue is looked upon as rough and difficult to travel and most painful, as one of the old poets testifies, saying:— / Vice one may take in troops with ease, / But in fair virtue’s front / Immortal God has stationed toil, / And care, and sweat, to bar the road. / Long is the road and steep, / And rough at first, which leads the steps / Of mortal man thereto; / But when you reach the height, the path / Is easy which before was hard, / And swift the onward course.