Salutes each other with each other's form,
For speculation turns not to itself,
Till it hath travell'd, and is married there,
Where it may see itself.

No man is the lord of any thing

26-iii. 3.

(Though in and of him there be much consisting),
Till he communicate his parts to others:
Nor doth he of himself know them for aught,

Till he behold them form'd in the applause,
Where they're extended; which, like an arch, rever-

berates

The voice again; or, like a gate of steel,
Fronting the sun, receives and renders back

His figure and his heat.

107

Man not to be a slave to sense.

What is a man,

If his chief good, and market* of his time,

Be but to sleep, and feed? a beast, no more.

26-iii. 3.

Sure, He, that made us with such large discourse, t

Looking before, and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unused.

36-iv. 4.

We play the fools with the time; and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds, and mock us. 19-ii. 2.

If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings, and the widow weeps. 6-v. 2.

Ah! when the means are gone, that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made :
Fast won-fast lost; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couched.

Love, and tongue-tied simplicity,

In least, speak most, to my capacity.

The worst is not,

7-v. 1.

So long as we can say, This is the worst. 34-iv. 1.

'Tis the mind that makes the body rich;
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth* in the meanest habit.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark,
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel,
Because his painted skin contents the eye?

12-iv. 3.

Our bodies are our gardens; to the which, our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce; set hyssop, and weed up thyme; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions.

37-i. 3.

I am in this earthly world; where, to do harm,
Is often laudable; to do good, sometime,
Accounted dangerous folly.

15-iv. 2.

Let the subject see, to make them know, That outward courtesies would fain proclaim Favours that keep within.†

117

Merit, its value.

Who shall go about

To cozen fortune, and be honourable

Without the stamp of merit! Let none presume

To wear an undeserved dignity.

118

Merit, too often unrewarded.

O, that estates, degrees, and offices,

9-ii. 9.

Were not derived corruptly! and that clear honour

Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!

How many then should cover, that stand bare!

How many be commanded, that command!

How much low peasantry would then be glean'd From the true seed of honour! and how much honour

Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,

To be new varnish'd!

9-ii. 9.

119

Mercy, the fairest virtue.

No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,

Become them with one half so good a grace,

As mercy does.

5-ii. 2.

120

Capriciousness of fortune.

Will fortune never come with both hands full,
But write her fair words still in foulest letters ?
She either gives a stomach, and no food,-
Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast,
And takes away the stomach, such are the rich,
That have abundance, and enjoy it not.

121

19-iv. 4.

The power of prejudice.

There may be in the cup

A spider steep'd, and one may drink; depart,
And yet partake no venom; for his knowledge

Is not infected; but if one present

The abhorr'd ingredient to his eye, make known
How he hath drank, he cracks his gorge, his sides,
With violent hefts.*

122

Court and country manners.

Those, that are good manners at the court, are as ridiculous in the country, as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court. 10-iii. 2.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages, princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.* The brain may devise laws, for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree; such a hare is madness the youth, to skip over the meshes of good counsel the cripple. 9-i. 2.

If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come,

And nothing pleaseth but rare accident.

No might nor greatness in mortality

18-i. 2.

Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes: What king so strong,

Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue ?

Before the curing of a strong disease,

5-iii. 2.

Even in the instant of repair and health,
The fit is strongest; evils, that take leave,

On their departure most of all show evil.

16-iii. 4.

127

Ceremony, its origin.

Ceremony

Was but devised at first, to set a gloss

On faint deeds, hollow welcomes,

Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown;

But where there is true friendship, there needs none.

Thieves are not judged, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them.

129

Promises and Performances.

17-iv. 1.

To

Promising is the very air o' the time: it opens the eyes of expectation: performance is ever the duller for his act; and, but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the deed of saying is quite out of use. promise is most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind of will, or testament, which argues a great sickness in his judgment that makes it. 27-v. 1.

130

Pleasure often preceded by labour.

There be some sports are painful; but their labour
Delight in them sets off; some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone; and most poor matters
Point to rich ends.

1-iii. 1.

When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner.

The evil, that men do, lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.

20-iii. 6.

29-iii. 2.

Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;

Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.

'Tis often seen,

36-iii. 2.

Adoption strives with nature; and choice breeds

A native slip to us from foreign seeds.

135

Patience and Cowardice compared.

11-i. 3.

That which in mean men we entitle-patience,
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.

136

Crisis.

17-i. 2.

Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward To what they were before.