Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd,

But to fine iffues: nor nature never lends

The smalleft fcruple of her excellence,

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use.

WHAT ftronger breaft-plate than a heart untained?
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just :
And he but naked (tho' lock'd up in steel)
Whofe confcience with injuftice is corrupted.

OH,

CHA P. IX.

H, world thy flippery turns! Friends now faft fworn,
Whofe double bofoms feem to wear one heart,

Whofe hours, whofe bed, whofe meal and exercise

Are still together: who twine (as 'twere) in love
Infeparable; fhall within this hour,

On a dissension of a doit, break out

To bittereft enmity. So felleft foes,

Whose paffions and whose plots have broke their fleep,
To take the one the other, by fome chance,
Some trick not worth an egg, fhall grow dear friends,
And interjoin their iffues.

-So it falls out,

That what we have we prize not to the worth,
Whiles we enjoy it ; but being lack'd and loft,
Why then we wreak the value ; then we find

The

The virtue that possession would not shew us
Whilft it was ours.

COWARDS die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come, when it will come.

THERE is fome foul of goodness in things evil,
Would men obfervingly diftil it out,

For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers :
Which is both healthful, and good hufbandry;
Befides, they are our outward conciences,
And preaches to us all; admonishing,
That we should dress us fairly for our end.

Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
Who builds his hope in th' air of men's fair looks,

Lives like a drunken failor on a mast,

Ready with every nod to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

-WHO fhall go about

To cozen fortune, and be honourable
Without the ftamp of merit? Let none perfume
To wear an undeserved dignity.

O that estates, degrees, and offices,

Were not derived corruptly, that clear honour
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!

How

How many then fhould cover that stand bare !
How many be commanded, that command!

Oн, who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frofty Caucafus ?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feaft?
Or wallow naked in December fnow,
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat ?
Oh, no ! the apprehenfion of the good,
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse;
Fell forrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lanceth not the fore.

'Tis flander ;

Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
Rides on the pofting winds, and doth belie

All corners of the world. Kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons, nay the fecrets of the grave,
This viperous flander enters.

THERE is is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune ;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in fhallows, and in miferies.

TO-MORROW, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty space from day to day,
To the last fyllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fool

The

The way to dusky death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking fhadow, a poor player,
That ftruts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more! It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of found and fury,
Signifying nothing.

BOOK

BOOK II.

NARRATIVE PIECES.

A

CHAP. I.

THE DER VISE.

DERVISE, travelling through Tartary, being arrived at the town of Balk, went into the king's palace by miftake, as thinking it to be a public inn or caravansary. Having looked about him for fome time, he entered into a long gallery, where he laid down his wallet, and spread his carpet, in order to repose himself upon it after the manner of the eastern nations. He had not been long in this pofture, before he was discovered by some of the guards, who asked him what was his business in that place? The Dervise told them he intended to take up his night's lodging in that caravanfary. The guards let him know, in a very angry manner, that the house he was in was not a caravansary, but the king's palace. It happened that the king himself passed through the gallery during this debate, and smiling at the mistake of the Dervise, asked him how he could poffibly be fo dull as not to distinguish a palace from a caravanfary? Sir, fays the Dervife, give me leave to ask your

majefty