With over-weather'd ribs, and ragged sails,

Lean, rent, and beggar'd, by the strumpet wind!

371

The effects of a disordered mind.

9-ii. 6.

Who can be wise, amazed, temperate, and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.

372

Knowledge gained by experience.

Our courtiers say, all's savage but at court:
Experience, O thou disprov'st report!

15-ii. 3.

The imperious* seas breed monsters; for the dish,
Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.

31-iv. 2.

You cannot make gross sins look clear;
To revenge is no valour, but to bear.

27-iii. 5.

Trifles, light as air,

Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ.

375

37-iii. 3.

The power of imagination.

Conceit may rob

34-iv. 6.

The treasury of life, when life itself

Yields to the theft.†

What's a drunken man like?

Like a drown'd man, a fool, and a madman: one draught above heat makes him a fool; the second mads him; and a third drowns him.

O world, how apt the poor are to be proud!

4-i. 5.

4-iii. 1.

Counsel may stop awhile, what will not stay;
For when we rage, advice is often seen
By blunting us to make our wits more keen.
Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
That we must curb it upon others' proof;
To be forbid the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
O appetite, from judgment stand aloof!
The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though reason weep and cry—it is thy last.

What pleasure find we in life, to lock it
From action and adventure?

Poems.

31-iv. 4.

Every lane's end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man work.

13-iv. 3.

O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee-devil!

*

*

* O, that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains! that we should, with joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!

37-ii. 3.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,

So do our minutes hasten to their end;

Each changing place with that which goes before;
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

Nativity once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,
And time that gave, doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth,
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow!
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow.

Poems. 386

The want of self-knowledge.
Defect of manners, want of government,
Pride, haughtiness, opinion, and disdain :
The least of which,
Loseth men's hearts; and leaves behind a stain
Upon the beauty of all parts besides,
Beguiling them of commendation.

18-iii. 1. 387

Comparison
When the moon shone, we did not see the candle.
So doth the greater glory dim the less;
A substitute shines brightly as a king,
Until a king be by; and then his state
Empties itself, as doth an inland brook
Into the main of waters.

9-y. 1.

a

388

Reason subdued by passion.

O strange excuse! When Reason is the bawd to Lust's abuse.

Poems.

389 The judgment corrupted by gold.
O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce
"Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars!

Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian's lap! thou visible god,
That solder'st close impossibilities,
And mak’st them kiss! that speak’st with every

tongue,
To every purpose! O thou touch* of hearts !
Think, thy slave man rebels; and by thy virtue

Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
May have the world in empire!

27-iv. 3. 390

The evil of loose discipline.

Now, as fond fathers,
Having bound up the threat’ning twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their children's sight,
For terror, not to use; in time the rod
Becomes more mock'd than fear'd: so our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And liberty plucks justice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

5-i. 4. 391

Impure poetry. Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound The open ear of youth doth always listen. 17-ii. 1. 392

The curse of avarice. Despair to gain doth traffic oft for gaining : And when great treasure is the meed proposed, Though death be adjunct, there's no death supposed. Those that much covet are of gain so fond, That what they have not (that which they possess) They scatter and unloose it from their bond, And so by hoping more they have but less; Or gaining more the profit of excess Is but to surfeit, and such griefs sustain, That they prove bankrupt in this poor-rich gain. The aim of all is but to nurse the life With honour, wealth, and ease, in waining age: And in this aim there is such thwarting strife, That one for all, or all for one, we gage: As life for honour in fell battle's rage, Honour for wealth, and oft that wealth doth cost The death of all, and altogether lost. So that in vent'ring all, we leave to be The things we are for that which we expect: And this ambitious foul infirmity, In having much, torments us with defect Of that we have : so then we do.neglect

The thing we have, and all for want of wit,
Make something nothing, by augmenting it.

393

Experience necessary to complete the man.

He cannot be a perfect man,

Not being tried and tutor'd in the world.
Experience is by industry achieved,
And perfected by the swift course of time.

394

The character of true excellence.

Value dwells not in particular will;

It holds its estimate and dignity

As well wherein 'tis precious of itself
As in the prizer; 'tis mad idolatry,

To make the service greater than the god;
And the will dotes, that is attributive
To what infectiously itself affects,*
Without some image of the affected merit.
I take to-day a wife, and my election
Is led on in the conduct of my will;t
My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears,
Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores
Of will and judgment: How may I avoid,
Although my will distaste what it elected,
The wife I chose? there can be no evasion

Poems.

2-i. 3.

To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour:
We turn not back the silks upon the merchant,

When we have soil'd them; nor the remainder viands
We do not throw in unrespective sieve,

Because we now are full.

395

The duty of conjugal fidelity.

26-ii. 2.