Not what is meet but what must be is law*.

171. MAGNANIMITY. * Some natures are too noble for this world.

172. DISCRIMINATION.

Who truly knows a great man's worthiness, To his faults is not blind.

173. APOSTASY INEXCUSABLE. Let it suffice if while men love their Country, Their country honours them. The service of the Being once gangren'd, is not then respected [foot For what it was before,

174. FITNESS. Let what is meet be said,

175. A STATE. What is the City but the People || ?

176. PALLIATIVES,

Cold ways,

That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous Where the disease is violent.

177. RAGE LEARNS REPENTANCE. Tyger-footed rage, when it shall find The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will too late Tye leaden pounds to it's heels. 178. SINCERITY.

* Never wish a man False to his nature. Rather let him play Nobly, the man he is.

а

180. PROSPERITY. 6 Pride out of daily fortune hourly taints The happy man. 181. NECESSITY OF PRUDENCE.

'Tis a defect of judgment To fail in the disposal of those chances We are made Lords of. 182. PARDON A ROYAL VIRTUE.

Royal it is to pardon, When it is least expected.

183. COMPASSION. Of no relenting tenderness to be Requires nor child nor woman's face to see.

184. REPENTANCE FOLLOWS VIOLENCE.
In deeds of violence, when rage is gone,
Great minds are struck with unavailing sorrow.

185. HONOUR AND POLICY.
Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends,
In the war do grow together. Grant that, and tell me
In peace what each of them by the other loses,
That they combine not there?

ACTION,
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
More learned than the ears.
187. HONOUR.

Rather
Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf,
Than flatter him in a bower.

188. Must a base tongue give to a noble heart A lie that it must bear?

189. ADVERSITY. Extremity is the trier of the spirits.

186.

a

190. ADVERSITY. Common chances common men can bear.

191. When the sea is calm all boats alike Shew mastership in floating.

192. REGRET. A man is lov'd when he is lack'd.

193. GRIEF IN AGE. An old man's tears are salter than a youth's.

194. RESIGNATION. "Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes As 'tis to laugh at them. 195. OCCASION.

Advantage ever cools In the absence of the needer. 196. MODERATION.

+ Having shewn our power, Let us seem humbler after it is done, Than when it was in doing. 197. DISSENTION.

Friends,-how fast sworn, Whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart, Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise, Are still together, who twin (as 'twere) in love Unseparable, shall, within an hour, On a dissention of a doit, break out To bitterest enmity. 198. POPULAR ESTIMATION.

Our virtues Lie in the interpretation of the times. 199.

Power
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair

a

1

a

To extol what it hath done *..

200. PARDON.
+ When pardon comes for acts which merit praise,
It is a bare petition of a State,
To one whom it has punish’d.

201. INJURY.
Injury is the jailor of Pity ll.

202. DEATH.
He that hath a will to die by himself, fears it
not from another.

HENRY VIII.
203. DIFFICULTIES MAY BE OVERCOME.

To climb steep hills .
Requires slow pace at first.
204. NOVELTY.

o Him in eye
Still him in praise with vulgar eyes and hearts,
While novelty holds force.
205. HONOUR IN HONESTY.

Affect
In honour honesty.
206. PRE-EMINENCE BY MERCY.

* Times there are,
When men not propt by ancestry, nor allied
To eminent assistants, spider-like,
Out of their self:drawn web give the world note,
The force of their own merit makes their

way;
A gift that Heaven gives for them, and which buys
Station pre-eminent.

That is, exaltation, by exciting envy, often is the grave of power, and sinks fame in oblivion-Omnium judicio dignus imperio nisi imper

your

a

207. PRODIGALITY RUINS ĘSTATES.

* Many Have broke their backs by laying Manors on them For earthly hopes and pageants: and by this So sicken'd their estates that haply never They shall abound as formerly.

208. REASON AGAINST PASSION. Let your reason with

choler question What 'tis you go about.

209. LEARNING MORE NOBLE THAN TITLE. A beggar's book outworths a noble’s blood *.

210. ANGER. Anger is like a full hot horse, Who being allowed his way, self-mettle tires him.

211. FOLLY OF REVENGE. Heat not a furnace || for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself.

212. REASON AND PASSION. Let the sap of reason quench the fire of passion.

213. SELF-ESTEEM.
Love yourself: and in that love,
Not unconsider'd leave your honour.
214. PRECIPITANCE.

We may out-run
By violent swiftness that which we run at:
And lose by over-running.

215.
The fire that mounts the liquor till 't run o'er
By seeming to augment it wastes it.

* This is applied sarcastically in the Drama : but it is true that Genius and Learning, when pre-eminent and suitably applied, have that internal Nobility which transcends Ancestry; more than Ancestry is

The metaphorical turn of this Aphorism gives it a very Pythagorean cast. It seems at the same time to allude to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

D

above Wealth.