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My father's old, what then? Age, like a caterpillar, Will crawl upon the leaves of a young tree

Till it has eaten away all its beauty;

And I'll not wafte my golden youth in bondage

To a proud flave.

Crown's Ambitious Statefman.

Oh, fir! my reafon is not dim with age,

Whate'er my eyes are; time which steals our fight,

Is for the thievery by nature fin'd,

To make us recompence in inward light.

Crown's Thyeftes.

OPINION.

Opinion's but a fool, that makes us fcan
The outward habit by the inward man.

Shakespear's Pericles.

Opinion, the blind goddefs of fools, foe
To the virtuous, and only friend to
Undeferving perfons.

Chapman's Widow's Tears.

O malcontent, feducing gueft,
Contriver of our greatest woes:
Which born of wind and fed with shews,
Doft nurse thyfelf in thine unreft,
Judging forgotten things the best!
Or what thou in conceit defign'ft,
And all things in the world doft deem,
Not as they are, but as they feem :
Which fhews their state thou ill defin'ft;
And liv't to come, in prefent pin'st.
For what thou haft, thou still doth lack.
O mind's tormentor, bodies rack,
Vain promifer of that sweet rest
Which never any yet poffefs'd!

Daniel's Cleopatra.

Whilft great men do, as tofs'd on th'ocean, groan,
Taught by their toils, efteem much of our reft:
For this doth thousands with affliction ftore,
Which of the world as most unhappy moan,

If

If they but chance to view fome few more blest ;
Where, if they would but mark how many a one
More wretch'd than they in mifery do live;
It ftrait would calm the most unquiet breast ;
The cottage oft is happier than the throne.
To think our own state good, and others ill,
It could not but a great contentment give:
There much confifts in the conceit and will;
To us all things are, as we think them still.

E. of Sterline's Alexandrean Tragedy.
There's nothing fimply good or ill alone;
Of ev'ry quality, comparison
The only measure is, and judge opinion.

Dr. Donne.

Who gets th'opinion of a virtuous name,
May fin at pleasure, and ne'er think of shame.

Middleton's Mad World my Mafters.

Let not opinion make thy judgment err;
The ev'ning conqueft crowns the conqueror.

Opinion is that high and mighty dame

Lady Alimony.

Which rules the world; and in the mind doth frame
Distaste or liking: For in human race,
She makes the fancy various as the face.
Sometimes the father differs from the son,
As doth the gospel from the alcoran ;
Or Loyala from Calvin; which two brands
In strange combuftions hurl fair Europe's lands ;
So that amongst fuch atoms of mankind,
You scarce can two encounter of one mind.

How can you reft where pow'r is still alarm'd :
Each crowd a faction, and each faction arm'd?
Who fashions of opinion love to change,
And think their own the best for being strange;
Their own if it were lafting, they would hate ;
Yet call it confcience when 'tis obftinate.

Howel.

Sir W. Davenant to the King.
OPPOR

OPPORTUNITY.

Secureful thoughts do fofter fond delay,

Bewitching hopes breed careleffness of mind; Occafion, fet on wing, flies faft away,

Whofe back once turn'd, no hold-faft can we find ;

Her feet are swift, bald is her head behind :

Who fo hath hold, and after lets her go,

Doth lofe the lot which fortune did bestow,

Mirror for Magiftrates.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in fhallows, and in miferies.
On fuch a full fea are we now a-float;

And we must take the current when it ferves,
Or lofe our ventures.

Shakefper's Julius Cæfar.

We must abide our opportunity :

And practice what is fit, as what is needful.
It is not fafe t'inforce a fovʼreign's ear:
Princes hear well, if they at all will hear.

Johnfon's Sejanus.

There is a certain feason, if we hit,
When women may be rid without a bit.

Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian.

Opportunity to statesmen, is as the just degree

Of heat to chymifts; it perfects all the work.

Suckling's Brennoralt.

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