Shall the proud lord,

That bastes his arrogance with his own seam,*
And never suffers matter of the world

Enter his thoughts, save such as do revolve

And ruminate himself,-shall he be worshipp'd

Of that we hold an idol more than he?

26-ii. 3.

Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?
And the creature run from the cur?

There thou might'st behold the great image of au

thority: a dog's obeyed in office.

139

34-iv. 6.

Human nature.

Strange is it, that our bloods,

Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together,
Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off

In differences so mighty.

140

Obedience to Princes.

The hearts of princes kiss obedience,

11-ii. 3.

So much they love it; but, to stubborn spirits,

They swell, and grow as terrible as storms.

25-iii. 1.

What our contempts do often hurl from us,
We wish it ours again; the present pleasure,

By revolution lowering,† does become

The opposite of itself.

142

The ill effects of neglected duty.

30-i. 2.

Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves:

Omission to do what is necessary‡

Seals a commission to a blank of danger;

And danger, like an ague, subtly taints

Even then when we sit idly in the sun.

Pardon, purchased by such sin,

For which the pardoner himself is in:
Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
When it is born in high authority:
When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended,
That for the fault's love, is the offender friended.

144

5-iv. 2.

The advantage of caution..

Things, done well,

And with a care, exempt themselves from fear :
Things, done without example, in their issue
Are to be fear'd.

O infinite virtue! com'st thou smiling from
The world's great snare uncaught?

146

25-i. 2.

30-iv. 8.

Flattery, its evil.

He does me double wrong,

That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.

147

Wisdom, superior to Fortune. Wisdom and fortune combating together, If that the former dare but what it can,

No change may shake it.

148

Calamity lightened by fortitude.

17-iii. 2.

30-iii. 11.

He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears
But the free comfort, which from thence he hears:

But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow,

That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.

149

Adversity, the test of character.

In the reproof of chance

37-i. 3.

Lies the true proof of men. The sea being smooth, How many shallow bauble boats dare sail

Upon her patient breast, making their way

With those of nobler bulk ?

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis,* and anon, behold

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements,
Like Perseus' horse: Where's then the saucy boat,
Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now
Co-rivall'd greatness? either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so
Doth valour's show, and valour's worth, divide,
In storms of fortune: For, in her ray and brightness,
The herd hath more annoyance by the brize,*
Than by the tiger: but when the splitting wind
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks,
And flies fled under shade, why, then the thing of

courage,t

As roused with rage, with rage doth sympathise,
And with an accent tuned in self-same key,

Returns to chiding fortune.

What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending doth the purpose lose.

26-i. 3.

36-iii. 2.

O place! O form!

How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
To thy false seeming?

What valour were it, when a cur doth grin,
For one to thrust his hand between his teeth,

5-ii. 4.

When he might spurn him with his foot away!

153

Self-praise no commendation.

23-i. 4.

The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
If that the praised himself bring the praise forth:

But what the repining enemy commends,

That breath fame follows; that praise, sole pure,

transcends.

* The gad-fly that stings cattle.

26-i. 3.

It is said of the tiger, that in storms and high winds he rages and roars most furiously. † Outside.

§ Prov. xxvii. 2.

Dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. And I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow.

36-ii. 2.

A gibing spirit, Whose influence is begot of that loose grace, Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools.

156

Tried fidelity.

He that can endure

To follow with allegiance a fallen lord,
Does conquer him that did his master conquer,

And earns a place i' the story.

157

8-v. 2.

30-iii. 11.

Danger of exaltation.

Our virtues

Lie in the interpretation of the time;
And power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

To extol what it hath done.*

28-iv. 7.

Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief,
Which they themselves not feel; but tasting it,
Their counsel turns to passion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ache with air, and agony with words:
No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow ;
But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency,
To be so moral, when he shall endure

There was never yet philosopher,

That could endure the toothache patiently;

6-v. 1.

However, they have writ the style of gods,*
And made a pish at chance and sufferance. 6-v. 1.

Thou dost conspire against thy friend,

If thou but think'st him wrong'd, and mak'st his ear

A stranger to thy thoughts.

37-iii. 3.

It is the curse of kings to be attended

By slaves, that take their humours for a warrant ;

And, on the winking of authority,

To understand a law; to know the meaning

Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns

More upon humour than advised respect.

Who buys a minute's mirth, to wail a week ?

Or sells eternity to get a toy?

16-iv. 2.

For one sweet grape, who will the vine destroy?

Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,

Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?

Authority, though it err like others,

Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,
That skins the vice o' the top.

164

The power of conscience.

A wicked conscienceMouldeth goblins swift as frenzy thoughts.

To be possess'd with double pomp,
To guardt a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,

To smooth the ice, or add another hue

Poems.

5-ii. 2.

26-v. 11.

* The style of gods, means, an exalted language; such as we may suppose would be written by beings superior to human calamities, and therefore regarding them with neglect and coldness.

† Lace.