Why then

Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works;
And think them shames, which are, indeed, nought

else

But the protractive trials of great Jove,

To find persistive constancy in men?
The fineness of which metal is not found
In fortune's love; for then, the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft, seem all affined* and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass, or matter, by itself
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled.

I held it ever,

26-i. 3.

Virtue and cunningt were endowments greater
Than nobleness and riches: careless heirs

May the two latter darken and expend;
But immortality attends the former,

Making a man a god.

177

Glory and Wealth, their temptation.

33-iii. 2.

O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us!
Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
Since riches point to misery and contempt?
Who'd be so mock'd with glory? or to live
But in a dream of friendship?

To have his pomp, and all what state compounds,
But only painted, like his varnish'd friends?

27-iv. 2.

178

Office.

'Tis the curse of service;

Preferment goes by letter, and affection,

Not by the old gradation,
Stood heir to the first.

* Joined by affinity. † Knowledge.
By recommendation from powerful friends.
Gradation, established by ancient practice.

where each second

37-i. 1.

Hasty, precipitate.

Grief boundeth where it falls,

Not with the empty hollowness, but weight.*

17-i. 2.

Men may construe things after their fashion,
Cleant from the purpose of the things themselves.

Poor and content, is rich, and rich enough ;‡
But riches, fineless, is as poor as winter,||
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.

Disguise, I see, thou art a wickedness,

29-i. 8.

37-iii. 3.

Wherein the pregnant ¶ enemy does much. 4-ii. 2.

183

Nature, its weakness.

Strange it is,

30-v. 1.

That nature must compel us to lament

Our most persisted deeds.

184 Judgment governed by circumstances.

Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;
Robes, and furr'd gowns, hide all. Plate sin with

gold,

And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks:
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it.

185

Virtue.

34-iv. 6.

Virtue, that transgresses, is but patched with sin; and sin, that amends, is but patched with virtue.

The first time that we smell the air,

We wawl and cry:

* That is, no griefs, evidently ence by reaction upon others. trasted to a bladder.

4-i. 5.

affected, have a sympathetic influThe conceit is from a ball con† Entirely.

'I have learned in whatever state,' &c.-Phil. iv. 11.

§ Endless, unbounded.

Winter, producing no fruits.

Dexterous, ready fiend.

When we are born, we cry, that we are come
To this great stage of fools.

34-iv. 6.

Sometimes, hath the brightest day a cloud :
And, after summer, evermore succeeds

Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold;
So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet. 22-ii. 4.

188

The camomile and youth contrasted.

Though the camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it wears.

189

Pride, its effects.

Two curs shall tame each other: Pride alone

18-ii. 4.

Must tarre* the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.

190

Men, their various characters.

O heavens, what some men do,

While some men leave to do!

26-i. 3.

How some men creep in skittish Fortune's hall,

While others play the idiots in her eyes!

How one man eats into another's pride,

While pride is fasting in his wantonness! 26-iii. 3.

191

Contentment, its happiness.

'Tis better to be lowly born,

And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.

'Tis a common proof t

25-ii. 3.

That lowliness is young Ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face ;
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.

29-ii. 1.

† Low steps.

193

Parental discipline neglected.

Had doting Priam check'd his son's desire,

Troy had been bright with fame, and not with fire.*

194

Deceiver of Females.

How easy is it for the proper-falset

In women's waxen hearts to set their forms! 4-ii. 2.

To wilful men,

34-ii. 4.

The injuries, that they themselves procure,
Must be their schoolmasters.

196

Prayers insincere, ineffectual.

The gods are deaf to hot and peevisht vows;
They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd
Than spotted livers in the sacrifice..

It is the purpose, that makes strong the vow;
But vows, to every purpose, must not hold.§

197

Determination with consideration.

What we do determine, oft we break. Purpose is but the slave to memory;

Of violent birth, but poor validity:

Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be. 36-iii. 2.

198

Blessings underrated.

It so falls out,

That what we have we prize not to the worth,
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack¶ the value; then we find
The virtue, that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours.

6-iv. 1.

199

Mediocrity of life.

Full oft 'tis seen

Our mean** secures us; and our mere defects

Never any thing can be amiss,

When simpleness and duty tender it.

201

Mental passions, their effects.

The passions of the mind,

That have their first conception by mis-dread,
Have after-nourishment and life by care;

7-v. 1.

And what was first but fear what might be done,*
Grows elder now, and cares it be not done.†

Care is no cure, but rather corrosive,
For things that are not to be remedied.

33-i. 2.

21-iii. 3.

They that stand high, have many blasts to shake

them;

And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.

Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.

205

Treason and murder, handmaids.

Treason and murder ever kept together,
As two yoke-devils sworn to either,s purpose.

24-i. 3.

5-ii. 1.

20-ii. 2.

We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: This even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips.

O mischief! thou art swift

To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!

15-i. 7.

*But fear of what may happen.

35-v. 1.

† And makes provision that it may not be done.