We may gather honey from the weed,
And make a moral of the devil himself.

20-iv. 1.

420

Flattery.
Should dying men flatter with those that live?
No, no; men living flatter those that die. 17-ji. 1.
421

Anticipation of evil.
To fly the boar before the boar pursues,
Were to incense the boar to follow us,
And make pursuit, where he did mean no chase.

24-iii. 2. 422 Honour not exempt from detraction.

Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm ? No. Or take away the grief of a wound ? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery then? No. What is honour ? A word. What is in that word, honour? What is that honour ? Air. A trim reckoning !Who hath it? He that died o’Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Is it insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living ? No. Why ? Letraction will not suffer it. 18-v. 1. 423

Exasperation.
Bad is the trade must play the fool to sorrow,
Ang’ring itself and others.

34-iv. I. 424

Filial ingratitude.
Ingratitude! thou marble-hearted fiend,
More hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child,
Than the sea-monster !*

34-i. 4.

425

Desirableness of meekness.
Who should study to prefer a peace,
If holy churchmen take delight in broils ? 21-iii. 1.
426

Self-inspection.
Thy Glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
Thy Dial how thy precious minutes waste;

The vacant Leaves thy mind's imprint will bear,
And of this book this learning may'st thou taste.
The wrinkles which thy Glass will truly show,
Of mouthed graves will give the memory;
Thou by thy Dial's shady stealth may’st know
Time's thievish progress to eternity.
Look, what thy memory cannot contain,
Commit to these waste Blanks, and thou shalt find
Those children nursed, deliver'd from thy brain,
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
Shall profit thee, and much enrich thy book.

Poems.
427 Greatness most exposed to scandal.
The mightier man, the mightier is the thing
That makes him honour'd, or begets him hate ;
For greatest scandal waits on greatest state.
The moon being clouded' presently is miss'd
But little stars may hide them when they list.
The crow may bathe his coal-black wings in mire,
And unperceived fly with the filth away;
But if the like the snow-white swan desire,
The stain upon his silver down will stay.
Poor grooms are sightless night, kings glorious day,
Gnats are unnoted wheresoe'er they fly,
But eagles gazed upon with every eye.

Poems. 428

Humility. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, But graciously to know I am no better. -5-ii. 4. 429

Kings, like other Men. Kings are no less unhappy, their issue not being gracious, than they are in losing them, when they have approved their virtues,

13-iv. 1. 430

Accusation.
When shall be think to find a stranger just,
When he himself, himself confounds, betrays
To sland'rous tongues the wretched hateful days ?*

Poems.
Matt. vii. 1--5.

432

a

431

Honour dearer than life.
Life every man holds dear; but the dear man
Holds honour far more precious dear* than life.

26-v. 3.

Malice.
Think'st thou it honourable for a noble man
Still to remember wrongs?

28-v. 3. 433

Duty fearless.
To plainness honour's bound,
When majesty stoops to folly.

344i. 1. 434

Fidelity in servitude.
Every good servant does not all commands:
No bond, but to do just ones.

31-v. 1.

435

Peace, in what sense a victory. A peace is of the nature of a conquest; For then both parties nobly are subdued, And neither party loser.

19-iv. 2. 436

The sight of sorrow, its effects. To see sad sights moves more, than hear them told; For then the eye interprets to the ear The heavy motion, that it doth behold; When every part a part of woe doth bear, 'Tis but a part of sorrow that we hear. Deep sounds make lesser noise, than shallow fords; And sorrow ebbs being blown with wind of words.

Poems. 437

Self-wretchedness.
The man that makes his toe

What he his heart should make,
Shall of a corn cry woe,

And turn his sleep to wake. 34-jï. 2. 438

Filial ingratitude.
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child !

439

Honours, their dangers.

Too much honour :
O, 'tis a burden, 'tis a burden,
Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven.

25-iii. 3. 440

Worldly opinion of things.

What things there are, Most abject in regard, and dear in use ! What things again most dear in the esteem, And poor in worth !

26-iii. 3. 441

Human corruption.

The world is grown so bad, That wrens may prey where eagles dare not perch.

24-i. 3. 442

Affections, false.

Your affections are
A sick man's appetite, who desires most that,
Which would increase his eyil.

28-i. 1. 443

Self-praise. We wound our modesty, and make foul the clearness of our deservings, when of ourselves we publish them.

11-i. 3. 444

The cruelty of oppression.

'Tis a cruelty, To load a falling man.

25-V. 2. 445 Famine contrasted with plenty.

Famine,
Ere clean it o'erthrow nature, makes it valiant.
Plenty, and peace, breeds cowards; hardness ever
Of hardness is mother.

31-iii. 4.

446

Father.

A father Is, at the nuptial of his son, a guest That best becomes the table.

13-iv. 3. 447

Love betrays itself like murder. A murd’rous guilt shows not itself more soon, Than love that would seem hid: love's night is noon.

4-iii. 2.

448

Female profligacy. Proper deformity seems not in the fiend So horrid, as in woman.

34-iv. 2. 449

Violent love boundless. This is the monstruosițy in love,—that the will is infinite, and the execution confined ; that the desire is boundless, and the act a slave to limit. 26-iii. 2. 450 Dependance on the great fruitless.

Poor wretches, that depend
On greatness' favour, dream,
Wake, and find nothing.*
Many dream not to find, neither deserve,
And yet are steeped in favours.

31-v. 4.
451 Punishment due to the guilty only.
Why should the private pleasure of some one
Become the public plague of many mo?
Let sin, alone committed, light alone
Upon his head that hath transgressed so;
Let guiltless souls be freed from guilty woe,
For one's offence, why should so many fall,
To plague a private sin in general ?

Poems. 452

The power of guilt.

Great guilt, Like poison given to work a great time after, Now 'gins to bite the spirits.f

1-iii. 3. 453

Jealousy.

I never gave him cause.
But jealous souls will not be answer'd so;
They are not ever jealous for the cause,
But jealous, for they are jealous: 'tis a monster,
Begot upon itself, born on itself.

37-iii. 4. 454

Debatement.
A night is but small breath, and little pause,
To answer matters of deep consequence.