Set them into confounding odds, that beasts May have the world in empire!
The evil of loose discipline.
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch, Only to stick it in their children's sight,
For terror, not to use; in time the rod
Becomes more mock'd than fear'd: so our decrees, Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead; And liberty plucks justice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart Goes all decorum.
Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound
The open ear of youth doth always listen. 17-ii. 1.
Despair to gain doth traffic oft for gaining :
And when great treasure is the meed proposed, Though death be adjunct, there's no death supposed. Those that much covet are of gain so fond, That what they have not (that which they possess) They scatter and unloose it from their bond, And so by hoping more they have but less; Or gaining more the profit of excess Is but to surfeit, and such griefs sustain, That they prove bankrupt in this poor-rich gain.
The aim of all is but to nurse the life
With honour, wealth, and ease, in waining age: And in this aim there is such thwarting strife, That one for all, or all for one, we gage: As life for honour in fell battle's rage, Honour for wealth, and oft that wealth doth cost The death of all, and altogether lost.
So that in vent'ring all, we leave to be The things we are for that which we expect : And this ambitious foul infirmity, In having much, torments us with defect Of that we have: so then we do neglect
The thing we have, and all for want of wit, Make something nothing, by augmenting it.
393 Experience necessary to complete the man. He cannot be a perfect man,
Not being tried and tutor❜d in the world. Experience is by industry achieved, And perfected by the swift course of time.
The character of true excellence. Value dwells not in particular will;
It holds its estimate and dignity As well wherein 'tis precious of itself As in the prizer; 'tis mad idolatry,
To make the service greater than the god;' And the will dotes, that is attributive To what infectiously itself affects," Without some image of the affected merit. I take to-day a wife, and my election Is led on in the conduct of my will;' My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears, Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores Of will and judgment: How may I avoid, Although my will distaste what it elected, The wife I chose? there can be no evasion To blenchs from this, and to stand firm by honour: We turn not back the silks upon the merchant, When we have soil'd them; nor the remainder viands We do not throw in unrespective sieve,
The duty of conjugal fidelity.
Nature craves,
All dues be render'd to their owners; Now, What nearer debt in all humanity, Than wife is to the husband? if this law Of nature be corrupted through affection; And that great minds, of partial indulgence
a The will dotes that attributed or gives the qualities which it affects; that first causes excellence, and then admires it.
ri.e. Under the guidance of my will.
To their benumbed" wills, resist the same; There is a law in each well-order'd nation, To curb those raging appetites that are Most disobedient and refractory.
Which buys admittance; oft it doth; yea, and makes Diana's rangers, false themselves, yield up
Their deer to the stand of the stealer; and 'tis gold Which makes the true man kill'd, and saves the thief; Nay, sometimes hangs both thief and true man: What Can it not do, and undo? 31-ii. 3.
The mind contaminated by gold.
This yellow slave
Will knit and break religions; bless the accursed; Make the hoar leprosy adored; place thieves, And give them title, knee, and approbation, With senators on the bench: this is it, That makes the wappen'd" widow wed again; She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices To the April day again.*
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; Whose breath Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states," Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave, This viperous slander enters.
All unavoided is the doom of destiny,- When avoided grace makes destiny.
The due of honour in no point omit.
I i. e. Gold restores her to all the sweetness and freshness of youth: y Persons of highest rank. z Unavoidable. a Heb. ii. 3. Rom. xiii. 7.
401 The world deluded by appearances. The world is still deceived with ornament. In Law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being season'd with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In Religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple, but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. How many Cowards, whose hearts are all as false As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules, and frowning Mars; Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk? And these assume but valour's excrement, To render them redoubted. Look on Beauty, And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight; Which therein works a miracle in nature, Making them lightest that wear most of it: So are those crisped snaky golden locks, Which make such wanton gambols with the wind, Upon supposed fairness, often known
To be the dowry of a second head,
The scull that bred them, in the sepulchre. Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,.
The seeming truth which cunning times put on To entrap the wisest.
Futurity wisely concealed.
O heaven! that one might read the book of fate; And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent
(Weary of solid firmness) melt itself
Into the sea! and, other times, to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean
Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock, And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,
The happiest youth,-viewing his progress through,
b Winning favour, pleasing.
What perils past, what crosses to ensue,- Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.
When love begins to sicken and decay,
It useth an enforced ceremony.
There are no tricks in plain and simple faith: But hollow men, like horses hot at hand,
Make gallant show and promise of their mettle: But, when they should endure the bloody spur, They fall their crests, and, like deceitful jades, Sink in the trial.
O, world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn, Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart, Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise, Are still together, who twin, as 'twere in love Unseparable, shall within this hour,
On a dissension of a doit, break out To bitterest enmity: So, fellest foes,
Whose passions, and whose plots, have broke their sleep
To take the one the other, by some chance,
Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends, And interjoin their issues.
405 Sorrow, heaviest when unaided by the tongue.
The heart hath treble wrong,
When it is barr'd the aidance of the tongue. An oven that is stopp'd, or river staid, Burneth more hotly, swelleth with more rage: So of concealed sorrow may be said.
To say, extremity was the trier of spirits; That common chances common men could bear; That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike Shew'd mastership in floating: fortune's blows, When most struck home, being gentle wounded,
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