518

Greatness, the pain of separating from. The soul and body rive* not more in parting,

Than greatness going off.

30-iv. 11.

When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks;

When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand;

When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?

24-ii. 3.

Untimely storms make men expect a dearth.

Before the days of change, still is it so:
By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust
Ensuing danger; as, by proof, we see
The water swelled before a boist'rous storm,

But leave it all to God.

An habitation giddy and unsure

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.

24-ii. 3.

It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he, which is, was wish'd until he were;

19-i. 3.

And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved, till ne'er worth love, Comes dear'd by being lack'd.t This common body,

Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,

To rot itself with motion.

523

Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,

30-i. 4.

The effects of care on age and youth.

And where care lodges, sleep will never lie;

But where unbruised youth with unstuff"d brain.

524

Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.

He, who the sword of Heaven shall bear,

35-ii. 3.

Impartiality to be shown in judging.

Should be as holy as severe :

Pattern in himself to know,

Grace to stand, and virtue go;

More nor less to others paying,
Than by self-offences weighing.
Shame to him, whose cruel striking

Kills for faults of his own liking !

525

Suspicion.

5-iii. 2.

Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect
The thoughts of others!

That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness?

Hold the world but as the world,

9-i. 3.

5-ii. 2.

A stage, where every man must play a part. 9-i. 1.

In our own natures frail; and capable

Of our flesh, few are angels.

25-v. 2.

Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,

Glory is like a circle in the water,

Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought.

530

Pleasure, preferred to knowledge.

21-i. 2.

Who, being mature in knowledge,

Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,

And so rebel to judgment.

30-i. 4.

That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature,

Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring;

Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers;

The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing;

What virtue breeds, iniquity devours:
We have no good that we can say is ours:
But ill annexed opportunity

Or kills his life, or else his quality.

O, Opportunity! thy guilt is great:
'Tis thou that execut'st the traitor's treason;
Thou set'st the wolf where he the lamb may get;
Whoever plots the sin, thou 'point'st the season;
'Tis thou that spurn'st at right, at law, at reason;
And in thy shady cell, where none may spy him,
Sits Sin, to seize the souls that wander by him.
Thou mak'st the vestal violate her oath:
Thou blow'st the fire when temperance is thaw'd;
Thou smother'st honesty, thou murder'st troth;
Thou foul abettor! thou notorious bawd!
Thou plantest scandal, and displacest laud :
Thou ravisher, thou traitor, thou false thief,
Thy honey turns to gall, thy joy to grief!
Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame,
Thy private feasting to a public fast;
Thy smoothing title to a ragged name;
Thy sugar'd tongue to bitter wormwood taste :
Thy violent vanities can never last.
How comes it then, vile Opportunity,
Being so bad, such numbers seek for thee?
When wilt thou be the humble suppliant's friend,
And bring him where his suit may be obtain'd?
When wilt thou sort an hour great strifes to end ?
Or free that soul which wretchedness hath chain'd?
Give physic to the sick, ease to the pained ?
The poor, lame, blind, halt, creep, cry out for thee;
But they ne'er meet with Opportunity.
The patient dies while the physician sleeps;
The orphan pines while the oppressor feeds;
Justice is feasting while the widow weeps;
Advice is sporting while infection breeds;
Thou grant'st no time for charitable deeds:
Wrath, envy, treason, rape, and murder's rages,
Thy heinous hours wait on them as their pages.
When Truth and Virtue have to do with thee,
A thousand crosses keep them from thy aid;
They buy thy help: but Sin ne'er gives a fee,

He gratis comes; and thou art well appay'd:
As well to hear as grant what he hath said.

Guilty thou art of murder and of theft;
Guilty of perjury and subornation;
Guilty of treason, forgery, and shift;
Guilty of incest, that abomination:
An accessary by thine inclination

To all sins past, and all that are to come,

From the creation to the general doom.

Poems.

533

Time personified.

Mis-shapen Time, copesmate of ugly night,
Swift subtle post, carrier of grisly care;

Eater of youth, false slave to false delight,
Base watch of woes, sin's pack-horse, virtue's snare;

Thou nursest all, and murderest all, that are.

Time's glory is to calm contending kings;
To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light;

To stamp the seal of time on aged things;

To wake the morn, and centinel the night;
To wrong the wronger, till he render right;

To ruinate proud buildings, with thy hours,
And smear with dust their glittering golden towers;
To fill with worm-holes stately monuments;
To feed oblivion with decay of things;

To blot old books, and alter their contents;
To pluck the quills from ancient ravens' wings;
To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish springs;
To spoil antiquities of hammer'd steel,
And turn the giddy round of fortune's wheel:
To show the beldame daughters of her daughter;
To make the child a man, the man a child;
To slay the tiger, that doth live by slaughter;
To tame the unicorn, and lion wild;
To mock the subtle, in themselves beguiled;
To cheer the ploughman with increaseful crops,
And waste huge stones with little water-drops.
Why work'st thou mischief in thy pilgrimage,
Unless thou could'st return to make amends?

One poor retiring minute in an age,
Would purchase thee a thousand thousand friends;
Lending him wit, that to bad debtors lends.

534

Moral conquest.

Poems.

Brave conquerors !-for so you are, That war against your own affections, And the huge army of the world's desires.

535

8-i. 1.

Every place a home to the wise.

All places, that the eye of heaven visits,
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens:*
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
There is no virtue like necessity.

17-i. 3.

536 The proffered means of Heaven to be embraced.

The means, that heaven yields, must be embraced,

And not neglected; else, if heaven would,
And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse;
The proffer'd means of succour and redress.

17-iii. 2.

Better conquest never can'st thou make, Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts Against those giddy loose suggestions.

538

16-iii. 1.

Acquaintanceship to be formed with caution.

It is certain that either wise bearing, or ignorant carriage, is caught, as men take diseases, one of another: therefore, let men take heed of their company.