From violent influxes of the blood;
But if the application be untimely, it causes
Gangreens and hæmorrhagies;
So youthful blood if checkt unfeasonably,
Becomes more infolent and impetuous,
More vitiated and corrupt, than if
Its natural courfe had not been hinder'd ;
The age of youth is the ftrong rein of
Paffion, and vice does ride in triumph
Upon the wheels of vehement defire,
Which run with infinite celerity,
When the body drives the chariot,
They can't be stopp'd on a sudden;
Art and deliberation must be us'd.
All hardy youths! from valiant fathers fprung,
Whom perfect honour he fo highly taught,
That th' aged fetch'd examples from the young,
And hid the vain experience which they brought.
Sir William Davenant's Gondibert.
Something of youth, I in old age approve;
But more the marks of age in youth I love.
Who this obferves, may in his body find
Decrepit age, but never in his mind.
And they whofe high examples youth obeys,
Are not defpifed, though their ftrength decays;
And thofe decays, to fpeak the naked truth,
Though the defects of age, were crimes of youth:
Intemp'rate youth, by fad experience found,
Ends in an age imperfect and unfound.
And to rafh youth 'tis an unhappy fate,
To come too early to a great eltate.